Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart

Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart

Figure Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart in the robe of the Lord Chief Justice of England from the coronation series of Player's cigarettes in 1937

Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart , PC (born January 7, 1870 in Bury , † May 5, 1943 in Totteridge ) was a British politician and lawyer.

Life

Hewart attended Manchester Grammar School and studied at University College , Oxford .

He married twice, Sarah Wood Riley in 1892 and Jean Stewart in 1934. With his first wife he had the daughter Katharine and his son and title heir Hugh . He died on May 5, 1943 in Totteridge near London .

Political and legal career

Hewart began his career as a journalist for the Manchester Guardian and the Morning Leader. In 1902 he was admitted to the Bar ( Barrister ) of the Inner Temple Bar Association . He joined the Northern Circuit . In 1912 he became King's Counsel ( Solicitor General ).

From 1913 he was a member of the House of Commons for the Liberal Party for the constituency of Leicester (after the division of this constituency then for Leicester East). Hewart was appointed Solicitor General in 1916 and - as usual - knighted ( Knight Bachelor ). In 1918 he became a member of the Privy Counselor . From January 10, 1919 to March 6, 1922 he was Attorney General . On March 8, 1922, he became Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and remained so until October 12, 1940. Hewart was given the title of Baron Hewart , of Bury in the County of Lancaster , on March 24, 1922 , the peerage of Lord Chief Justice to be able to sit in the House of Lords . In retirement he was promoted to Viscount Hewart , of Bury in the County of Lancaster on November 1, 1940 .

In 1929 Hewart published his work The New Despotism . In it, he claimed that in Britain the rule of law was being undermined by the executive to the detriment of the legislature and the judiciary . This book sparked controversy and led to the appointment of a committee on the power of government officials. It was chaired by Richard Hely-Hutchinson, 6th Earl of Donoughmore . This committee's report rejected Hewart's arguments.

Hewart has been described as "one of the most vigorous and vociferous believers in the impeccability of the English jury system of this or any other century".

In 1931, Hewart wrote legal history when he (together with Judge Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson and Judge Sir John Anthony Hawke ) overturned the conviction for the murder of William Herbert Wallace , Rex v Wallace (1931) 23 Cr App R 32, on the grounds that the Conviction is not borne by the weight of the evidence. In other words, the jury was wrong.

Hewart is the author of the wording (derived from the reasoning in the judgment on the Rex v Sussex Justices case, Ex parte McCarthy ) of the legal sentence: "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done." This has found its way into the legal systems of European states through the case law on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and can now be viewed as a European legal principle.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart on thepeerage.com , accessed August 19, 2015.
2. ↑ Lord Hewart: The New Despotism . Ernest Benn Limited, London 1929, p. 17.
3. ↑ Jonathan Goodman: The Killing of Julia Wallace. Headline, London, 1987, p. 251.
4. ↑ (1924) 1 KB 256, (1923) All ER Rep 233
5. ↑ See e.g. B. Austrian Supreme Court October 3, 2010, 12Ns93 / 10p.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baron Hewart 1922-1943	Hugh Hewart
New title created	Viscount Hewart 1940-1943	Hugh Hewart