Robert Megarry
Encyclopedia
Sir Robert Edgar Megarry FBA
PC QC
(1 June 1910—11 October 2006) was a British
lawyer and judge.
Originally a solicitor
, he requalified as a barrister
and also pursued a parallel career as a legal academic. He later became a High Court judge
and served as Vice-Chancellor of the Chancery Division from 1976 to 1981. Afterwards he served as Vice-Chancellor of the Supreme Court from 1982 to 1985.
in Belfast
; his mother's father was a Major General
. Megarry was born in Croydon
, Surrey
and was educated at Lancing
and Trinity Hall, Cambridge
. He did not concentrate on his academic studies at university, writing for student newspaper Varsity
as its first music critic, played football and tennis for his college, and obtained a pilot's licence; he ended up with a third class degree
. He married his wife, Iris, in 1936, and they had three daughters. His wife died in 2001, but he was survived by his daughters.
Having trained as a solicitor
, he practised as one from 1935 to 1941. He also taught law students, and lectured at Cambridge from 1939 to 1940. He worked at the Ministry of Supply
during the Second World War, rising to Assistant Secretary
by 1946. With encouragement from Arthur Goodhart, Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford University, he retrained as a barrister
, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn
in 1944, and left the civil service
to practise as a barrister in 1946, specialising in equity and land law. In parallel to his legal career, he also taught law at Cambridge University, becoming a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge
in 1945, and rising to become a university Reader by 1967. He was elected as a member of the Bar Council
in 1948. He became a QC
in 1956, was a bencher
at Lincoln's Inn in 1962, and was Treasurer in 1981.
He was prosecuted at the Old Bailey
for submitting false income tax
returns in 1954. The prosecuting counsel was Sir Harry Hylton-Foster
, the Solicitor General
and later Speaker of the House of Commons
; counsel for the defence was Frederick Lawton
, later a senior judge. Megarry's tax affairs were complex, with his earnings as a lecturer dealt with by his wife and his self-employed income from his legal practice dealt with by his clerk. Each assumed that the other was dealing with certain items of income, but in fact neither did, so it was omitted from Megarry's tax returns. The judge directed the jury to acquit Megarry, on the grounds that the error was a genuine mistake with no intention to defraud the tax authorities.
Megarry was also an accomplished legal writer, publishing several leading textbooks. He is perhaps best known as joint author of The Law of Real Property with William Wade
, first published in 1957 and usually known as Megarry and Wade. A 6th edition, edited by Charles Harpum, was published in 1999. Megarry also wrote a handbook to the Rent Acts in 1939, which ran to 11 editions by 1988. His Lectures on the Town and Country Act 1947 was published in 1949, shortly after the new town planning legislation was passed, and he also published A Manual of the Law of Real Property (1946), which ran to 8 editions. He was the sole editor of the 23rd edition of Snell's Equity (1947); he then edited the 24th edition (1954) to the 27th edition (1973) jointly with Paul Vivian Baker. His works broke new ground, in presenting technical areas of the law in a clear and systematic way, to the benefit of generations of law students.
His love of the minutiae of legal practice led him to publish several legal miscellanies, including Miscellany-at-law (1955), Arabinesque-at-law (1969), Inns Ancient and Modern (1972), A Second Miscellany-at-Law (1973) and A New Miscellany-At-Law (2005). He was also a book review and assistant editor of the Law Quarterly Review
from 1944 to 1967, and a consultant for the BBC
's radio programme Law in Action
from 1953 to 1966. He also published An Introduction to Lincoln's Inn in 1971.
in 1967, in the Chancery Division, receiving the customary knighthood. He became Vice-Chancellor of that division in 1976, effectively its head, as the deputy of the absent Lord Chancellor
. He became a Privy Counsellor in 1978, and held the new post of Vice-Chancellor of the Supreme Court from 1982 to 1985.
He had a traditional view of the law, and was unwilling to set new legal precedent. In Gaiman v National Association for Mental Health, he ruled that the National Association for Mental Health was able to expel 302 suspect members, to prevent a suspected take-over by the Church of Scientology
. In Midland Cold Storage v Steer he denounced picketing by dock workers as "the law of the jungle", but held that he had no jurisdiction to ban it, deferring to the National Industrial Relations Court
. He was the first Chancery judge to sit outside London, when he attended a mock funeral in Iken
in Suffolk
to test how easy it would be to carry a coffin
along an alleged right of way in St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocesan Board of Finance v Clark.
He sat in the case of Tito v Waddell, brought by the former residents of Banaba Island
, whose island was all but destroyed by phosphate
mining. He took the court on a 3-week trip to the south Pacific
, to visit the island. After sitting for 206 days, Megarry delivered a judgment containing 100,000 words. He asked the Crown
to do its duty to the islanders, but found that he was unable to require it to do anything.
He was appointed as Vice-Chancellor in 1976. In 1977, he declined to grant The Beatles
an injunction to prohibit the sale of an unauthorised record based on informal and unrehearsed tapes. In 1979, he upheld a worldwide playing ban imposed on George Best
by FIFA
arising from a complaint by Best's former employer, Fulham Football Club. Also in 1979, he was unable to uphold a complaint in Malone v Metropolitan Police Commissioner (No 2), regarding phone tapping during a police investigation. However, in 1984 the European Court of Human Rights
decided that it was a contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights
. Megarry ordered Granada Television
to disclose the name of a confidential source in 1980, following leaks of information from British Steel
.
He ruled in two cases involving the National Union of Mineworkers in 1984. In the first case, he declined a request from the National Coal Board
for a mandatory order to direct union representative how to act as trustees of a pension fund, but gave directions on the representatives' fiduciary duties instead, making it clear that the trustees were obliged to consider investment outside the UK and in industries that compete with coal
. Breach of the former would have risked the miners leaders being in contempt of court
; breach of the latter would simply enable them to be removed as trustees. In the second case, a month later, he prohibited the NUM from calling a strike in Nottinghamshire, because a ballot had not been held, and then declared that an NUM plan to discipline non-striking miners was illegal.
He was chairman of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
for 15 years, from 1972 to 1987.
that decided the important negligence
case of Yuen Kun Yeu in 1987. In retirement, he lectured in law in North America, and was Visitor at the University of Essex
and in Cambridge.
He was an active member of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
into the 1990s. His last book, A New Miscellany-At-Law, was published in December 2005.
He died in London
.
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
PC QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
(1 June 1910—11 October 2006) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
lawyer and judge.
Originally a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
, he requalified as a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
and also pursued a parallel career as a legal academic. He later became a High Court judge
High Court judge
A High Court judge is a judge of the High Court of Justice, and represents the third highest level of judge in the courts of England and Wales. High Court judges are referred to as puisne judges...
and served as Vice-Chancellor of the Chancery Division from 1976 to 1981. Afterwards he served as Vice-Chancellor of the Supreme Court from 1982 to 1985.
Early and private life
Megarry's father was a solicitorSolicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
; his mother's father was a Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
. Megarry was born in Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
and was educated at Lancing
Lancing College
Lancing College is a co-educational English independent school in the British public school tradition, founded in 1848 by Nathaniel Woodard. Woodard's aim was to provide education "based on sound principle and sound knowledge, firmly grounded in the Christian faith." Lancing was the first of a...
and Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
. He did not concentrate on his academic studies at university, writing for student newspaper Varsity
Varsity (Cambridge)
Varsity is the oldest of Cambridge University's main student newspapers. It has been published continuously since 1947, and is one of only three fully independent student newspapers in the UK. It appears every Friday around Cambridge...
as its first music critic, played football and tennis for his college, and obtained a pilot's licence; he ended up with a third class degree
British undergraduate degree classification
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading scheme for undergraduate degrees in the United Kingdom...
. He married his wife, Iris, in 1936, and they had three daughters. His wife died in 2001, but he was survived by his daughters.
Having trained as a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
, he practised as one from 1935 to 1941. He also taught law students, and lectured at Cambridge from 1939 to 1940. He worked at the Ministry of Supply
Ministry of Supply
The Ministry of Supply was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. There was, however, a separate ministry responsible for aircraft production and the Admiralty retained...
during the Second World War, rising to Assistant Secretary
Assistant Secretary
Assistant Secretary is a grade in the British Civil Service, now more commonly styled Divisional Manager or Deputy Director. In the grading scheme they are denoted Grade 5....
by 1946. With encouragement from Arthur Goodhart, Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford University, he retrained as a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
in 1944, and left the civil service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
to practise as a barrister in 1946, specialising in equity and land law. In parallel to his legal career, he also taught law at Cambridge University, becoming a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
in 1945, and rising to become a university Reader by 1967. He was elected as a member of the Bar Council
Bar council
A bar council , in a Commonwealth country and in the Republic of Ireland, the Bar Council of Ireland is a professional body that regulates the profession of barristers together with the King's Inns. Solicitors are generally regulated by the Law society....
in 1948. He became a QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
in 1956, was a bencher
Bencher
A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can be elected while still a barrister , in recognition of the contribution that the barrister has made to the life of the Inn or to the law...
at Lincoln's Inn in 1962, and was Treasurer in 1981.
He was prosecuted at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
for submitting false income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
returns in 1954. The prosecuting counsel was Sir Harry Hylton-Foster
Harry Hylton-Foster
Sir Harry Braustyn Hylton-Foster , was a British Conservative Party politician who served as an Member of Parliament from 1950 until his death...
, the Solicitor General
Solicitor General for England and Wales
Her Majesty's Solicitor General for England and Wales, often known as the Solicitor General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Attorney General, whose duty is to advise the Crown and Cabinet on the law...
and later Speaker of the House of Commons
Speaker of the British House of Commons
The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...
; counsel for the defence was Frederick Lawton
Frederick Lawton
Frederick Joseph Lawton was an American bureaucrat who served as the ninth Director of the Bureau of the Budget. Lawton was born in Washington, D.C., and became a lawyer and an accountant. He spent most of his professional career working with the government bureaucracy. He helped President...
, later a senior judge. Megarry's tax affairs were complex, with his earnings as a lecturer dealt with by his wife and his self-employed income from his legal practice dealt with by his clerk. Each assumed that the other was dealing with certain items of income, but in fact neither did, so it was omitted from Megarry's tax returns. The judge directed the jury to acquit Megarry, on the grounds that the error was a genuine mistake with no intention to defraud the tax authorities.
Megarry was also an accomplished legal writer, publishing several leading textbooks. He is perhaps best known as joint author of The Law of Real Property with William Wade
Henry William Rawson Wade
Sir William Wade QC, FBA was a British academic lawyer, best known for his work on the law of real property and administrative law.Wade was educated at Shrewsbury School and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge...
, first published in 1957 and usually known as Megarry and Wade. A 6th edition, edited by Charles Harpum, was published in 1999. Megarry also wrote a handbook to the Rent Acts in 1939, which ran to 11 editions by 1988. His Lectures on the Town and Country Act 1947 was published in 1949, shortly after the new town planning legislation was passed, and he also published A Manual of the Law of Real Property (1946), which ran to 8 editions. He was the sole editor of the 23rd edition of Snell's Equity (1947); he then edited the 24th edition (1954) to the 27th edition (1973) jointly with Paul Vivian Baker. His works broke new ground, in presenting technical areas of the law in a clear and systematic way, to the benefit of generations of law students.
His love of the minutiae of legal practice led him to publish several legal miscellanies, including Miscellany-at-law (1955), Arabinesque-at-law (1969), Inns Ancient and Modern (1972), A Second Miscellany-at-Law (1973) and A New Miscellany-At-Law (2005). He was also a book review and assistant editor of the Law Quarterly Review
Law Quarterly Review
The Law Quarterly Review is an academic legal periodical published by Sweet & Maxwell. It was first published in 1885...
from 1944 to 1967, and a consultant for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's radio programme Law in Action
Law in action
Law in action is a legal theory, associated with legal realism, that examines the role of law, not just as it exists in the statutes and cases, but as it is actually applied in society. Law in action scholars often start with observations about the behavior of institutions and work "backwards"...
from 1953 to 1966. He also published An Introduction to Lincoln's Inn in 1971.
Judicial career
Megarry was appointed as a High Court judgeHigh Court judge
A High Court judge is a judge of the High Court of Justice, and represents the third highest level of judge in the courts of England and Wales. High Court judges are referred to as puisne judges...
in 1967, in the Chancery Division, receiving the customary knighthood. He became Vice-Chancellor of that division in 1976, effectively its head, as the deputy of the absent Lord Chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
. He became a Privy Counsellor in 1978, and held the new post of Vice-Chancellor of the Supreme Court from 1982 to 1985.
He had a traditional view of the law, and was unwilling to set new legal precedent. In Gaiman v National Association for Mental Health, he ruled that the National Association for Mental Health was able to expel 302 suspect members, to prevent a suspected take-over by the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
. In Midland Cold Storage v Steer he denounced picketing by dock workers as "the law of the jungle", but held that he had no jurisdiction to ban it, deferring to the National Industrial Relations Court
National Industrial Relations Court
The National Industrial Relations Court was established on 1 December 1971 under Section 99 of the Industrial Relations Act 1971. The NIRC was created by the Conservative government of Ted Heath as a way to limit the power of trades union in the United Kingdom...
. He was the first Chancery judge to sit outside London, when he attended a mock funeral in Iken
Iken
Iken is a small village and civil parish in the marshlands of the English county of Suffolk.It is near the estuary of the River Alde on the North Sea coast and is located south east of Snape and due north of Orford....
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
to test how easy it would be to carry a coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...
along an alleged right of way in St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocesan Board of Finance v Clark.
He sat in the case of Tito v Waddell, brought by the former residents of Banaba Island
Banaba Island
Banaba Island , an island in the Pacific Ocean, is a solitary raised coral island west of the Gilbert Island chain and 300 km east of Nauru. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. It has an area of 6.5 km², and the highest point on the island is also the highest point in Kiribati, at 81...
, whose island was all but destroyed by phosphate
Phosphate
A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...
mining. He took the court on a 3-week trip to the south Pacific
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
, to visit the island. After sitting for 206 days, Megarry delivered a judgment containing 100,000 words. He asked the Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
to do its duty to the islanders, but found that he was unable to require it to do anything.
He was appointed as Vice-Chancellor in 1976. In 1977, he declined to grant The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
an injunction to prohibit the sale of an unauthorised record based on informal and unrehearsed tapes. In 1979, he upheld a worldwide playing ban imposed on George Best
George Best
George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders...
by FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
arising from a complaint by Best's former employer, Fulham Football Club. Also in 1979, he was unable to uphold a complaint in Malone v Metropolitan Police Commissioner (No 2), regarding phone tapping during a police investigation. However, in 1984 the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
decided that it was a contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights
European Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...
. Megarry ordered Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
to disclose the name of a confidential source in 1980, following leaks of information from British Steel
British Steel
British Steel was a major British steel producer. It originated as a nationalised industry, the British Steel Corporation , formed in 1967. This was converted to a public limited company, British Steel PLC, and privatised in 1988. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index...
.
He ruled in two cases involving the National Union of Mineworkers in 1984. In the first case, he declined a request from the National Coal Board
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...
for a mandatory order to direct union representative how to act as trustees of a pension fund, but gave directions on the representatives' fiduciary duties instead, making it clear that the trustees were obliged to consider investment outside the UK and in industries that compete with coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
. Breach of the former would have risked the miners leaders being in contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
; breach of the latter would simply enable them to be removed as trustees. In the second case, a month later, he prohibited the NUM from calling a strike in Nottinghamshire, because a ballot had not been held, and then declared that an NUM plan to discipline non-striking miners was illegal.
He was chairman of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England & Wales, more commonly known as the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting is a registered charity based in London, England that publishes law reports of English law...
for 15 years, from 1972 to 1987.
Retirement
He retired as a judge in 1985, but occasionally sat until 1991. He was a member of the panel of judges of the Privy CouncilPrivy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
that decided the important negligence
Negligence
Negligence is a failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in like circumstances. The area of tort law known as negligence involves harm caused by carelessness, not intentional harm.According to Jay M...
case of Yuen Kun Yeu in 1987. In retirement, he lectured in law in North America, and was Visitor at the University of Essex
University of Essex
The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...
and in Cambridge.
He was an active member of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies is part of the School of Advanced Study of the University of London. It was founded in 1946 as a national academic institution to promote and advance legal research, implementing a proposal of 1934 report of the Legal Education Committee chaired by Lord Atkin...
into the 1990s. His last book, A New Miscellany-At-Law, was published in December 2005.
He died in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.