Desmond Ackner, Baron Ackner

Desmond James Conrad Ackner, Baron Ackner PC QC (born September 18, 1920 - March 21, 2006 ) was a British lawyer who was last as Lord of Appeal in Ordinary due to the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 as a life peer also a member of the House of Lords was.

Life

After visiting the Highgate School graduated Ackner a degree in law at Clare College of the University of Cambridge and made in the meantime during the Second World War military service in the Royal Artillery . After completing his studies in 1945 he was admitted to the bar ( Inns of Court ) of Middle Temple , whereupon he took up a position as a barrister . For his services as a lawyer he was awarded the title of Crown Attorney ("Queen's Counsel") in 1961 and in 1965, after twenty years of legal practice, he was also so-called "Bencher" of the Middle Temple Bar Association. In addition to his legal work, he was a part-time city ​​judge in Swindon from 1962 to 1971 .

Ackner gained national attention as a lawyer in the mid-1960s when he represented the survivors of the Aberfan mine disaster of October 21, 1966 and raised serious allegations against Alfred Robens, Baron Robens , chairman of the National Coal Board .

He subsequently moved full-time into the Judicial Service and was from 1967 to 1971 also judge at the Court of Appeal ( Court of Appeal ) for Jersey and Guernsey . At the end of the 1960s, he also dealt with the victims of the intake of thalidomide and granted high compensation payments for them. Between 1968 and 1970 he also served as Chairman of the General Council of the Bar and as Vice-President of the Senate of the four bar associations of the Inns of Court.

Ackner then became a judge in the Chamber for Civil Matters ( Queen's Bench Division ) at the High Court of Justice responsible for England and Wales and held this judge's office until 1980. At the same time, he was promoted to a Knight Bachelor in 1971 and since then has been given the suffix "Sir". During this time he was also a judge at the Commercial Court , a subdivision of the Chamber of Civil Matters, from 1973 to 1980 , and from 1976 to 1979 presiding judge of the department responsible for the west of England.

After termination of this judicial activity, he was appointed judge ( Lord Justice of Appeal ) in 1980 at the Court of Appeal , the court of appeal responsible for England and Wales, where he worked until 1986. In addition, he was appointed Privy Councilor in 1980.

Most recently, Ackner was appointed to the nobility on January 6, 1986 on the basis of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 as a life peer with the title Baron Ackner, of Sutton in the County of West Sussex to a member of the House of Lords and served as lord judge until 1992 ( Lord of Appeal in Ordinary ). As lord judge in 1987 he dealt with the advance publication of excerpts from the novel Spycatcher by Peter Wright . This press law restrictions were of Peter Preston , the editor in chief of the daily newspaper The Guardian as "new and ominous weapon." Most recently he was President of the Society of Sussex Downsmen between 1993 and 1996.

Web links

• Desmond Ackner at Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• Lords of Appeal in Ordinary 1876-2009 in Peerages
• Lord Ackner: Outspoken judge who blocked publication of the Spycatcher secrets and, as a barrister, won the thalidomide case . In: The Guardian, March 24, 2006