George Emslie, Baron Emslie

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George Emslie Carlyle, Baron Emslie PC MBE (* 6. December 1919 in Glasgow , † 21st November 2002 ) was a British lawyer , who from 1972 to 1989 as Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of the session chief judge of Scotland was and in 1980 when Life Peer became a member of the House of Lords under the Life Peerages Act 1958 . As a lawyer , he represented Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll in 1963 in a scandalous divorce case against his third wife Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll .

Life

Studies and World War II

Emslie, whose father was a manager at the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company , began studying art history and law at the University of Glasgow after attending the prestigious High School of Glasgow , as law studies at Scottish universities were only connected to this was possible with a second course.

After the outbreak of World War II , he interrupted his studies in 1940 to serve as a lieutenant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders . Between 1942 and 1946 he took part in missions of his association in North Africa , Italy , Greece and Austria and was mentioned for his services in the war report ( Mentioned in Despatches ). After 1944, the Staff College in Haifa had graduated, he was at the age of just 25 years for Major transported and served until 1946 as Chief of Staff of Infantry - Brigade ( Brigade Major ). In 1946 he became a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Lawyer and Public Prosecutor

After retiring from active military service, he resumed his studies at the University of Glasgow and was admitted to the bar in 1948 after completing his studies. In 1955 he switched to civil service and served as a prosecutor ( Advocate Depute ) at various Sheriff Courts , the lower courts of Scotland. In 1957 he was appointed Queen's Counsel ( Queen's Counsel appointed).

In 1961 he launched a public inquiry into rents, the local authorities on behalf of Scotland minister ( Secretary of State for Scotland ) levied. Shortly before, it had become known that a third of the county's tenants would pay four times as much to rent their televisions as they would for their electrified and heated homes.

The Duke of Argyll's Divorce Trial

In 1963 he was the legal representative of Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll in a scandalous divorce process that began in 1959 against his third wife Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll. The Duke of Argyll, who heads Clan Campbell and holds the hereditary title of Master of the Royal Household of Scotland , sued his wife for divorce for adultery with three men.

The lawsuit lasted eleven days in the Edinburgh court and revealed, among other things, a photograph of the duchess in which she was naked except for a three-strand pearl necklace and engaged in a sexual act with a man whose face could not be seen and whose identity has been the subject of speculation for years. Furthermore, Emslie submitted a diary of the Duchess, in which she described the qualities of a number of lovers in countless situations.

The presiding judge of the court, John Wheatley , admitted the diary after Emslie found it was open on her bedside table and therefore could not be classified as confidential. In his judgment, Wheatley stated that the duchess was "a completely promiscuous woman whose attitude to marriage is what modernity would call enlightened, but which in plain language is completely immoral" ('a completely promiscuous woman [whose] attitude towards marriage was what moderns would call enlightened, but which in plain language was wholly immoral ').

Judge and promotion to Lord Justice General

In 1963 Emslie first became the Scotland of Perth and Angus and thus the competent judge for these districts. This was followed in 1965 by his appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates and thus head of the organization of prosecutors before the courts of Scotland, in particular the Court of Session (Supreme Civil Court) and the High Court of Justiciary (Supreme Criminal Court).

In 1970 he was appointed Senator of the College of Justice and Lord of Session to serve as judge in these two Scottish Supreme Courts.

As the successor to James Latham Clyde, Lord Clyde , Emslie became Lord Justice General in 1972 and at the same time Lord President of the Court of the Session and was thus the highest judge of Scotland until his replacement by David Hope in 1989. In addition, he was also appointed Privy Councilor .

In one of his most significant decisions, he decided that the Labor Party- ruled city government must make selective school choices in 1972. He also spoke out in favor of life imprisonment in the case of murder, which is generally provided for, and decided in a judgment from 1983 that the sale of adhesive sniffing bags to children was a criminal offense. In his opinion, the use of a dangerous substance such as inhalant was covered by the definition of a crime under the Common Law of Scotland, even if the crime itself was not yet covered. In 1989 judgments, he eventually ruled that a husband could be charged with rape against his wife and that parents had the right to beat their children.

Admission of private indictment in the Glasgow Rape Case

During this time he was also officially President of the Court of Appeal and in this capacity allowed a group of three juveniles to be charged with rape in 1982 after the failure of the Crown's public indictment in September 1981. Charges in the so-called "Glasgow Rape Case" were dropped after doubts about the victim's state of mind and ability to testify emerged. The case sparked considerable controversy and ultimately led to the resignation of Conservative MP of the House of Commons Nicholas Fairbairn as Solicitor General for Scotland . Despite the public attention the case attracted, Emslie decided, after a new psychiatric examination of the victim, that a private charge was warranted, although he noted that history created a prejudice . In his decision, he stated that a fair trial was of paramount importance, but that the public interest in the administration of the judiciary and the trials of offenders should also be taken into account.

This last aspect of the public interest in this case had to be given great weight in his view, but also added that public recollection of newspaper articles is notoriously short. He issued a rarely used criminal letter to arrest the accused and allow private prosecution. The three defendants were later convicted of the crime.

House of Lords and Family

By letters patent dated February 11, 1980, Emslie was raised to the nobility under the Life Peerages Act 1958 as a life peer with the title Baron Emslie , of Potterton in the District of Gordon, and was a member of the House of Lords until his death on. The official introduction ( House of Lords ) took place with the support of Kenneth Diplock, Baron Diplock and James Mackay, Baron Mackay of Clashfern on February 13, 1980. In 1987 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).

Lilias Ann Mailer Hannington, who closed in 1942, had three sons. The two older sons were like their father Senator of the College of Justice , namely George Emslie, Lord Emslie between 2001 and 2012 and Derek Emslie, Lord Kingnorth from 1996 to 2010. The youngest son Richard Hannington Emslie is a specialist in South Africa Rhinos .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 34934, HMSO, London, August 30, 1940, p. 5276 ( PDF , English).
  2. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 37598, HMSO, London, June 4, 1946, p. 2774 ( PDF , English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 45087, HMSO, London, April 24, 1970, p. 4656 ( PDF , accessed December 27, 2013, English).
  4. ↑ In Lord Emslie's judgment… . In: The Herald of Scotland, November 13, 1989
  5. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 48059, HMSO, London, January 7, 1980, p. 287 ( PDF , English).
  6. ↑ Entry in Hansard (February 13, 1980)
personal data
SURNAME Emslie, George, Baron Emslie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Emslie, George Carlyle, Baron Emslie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-Scottish lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 2002