Richard Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce

Bos, Wilberforce, Argnas, Polak & Voous (1970)

Richard Orme Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce Kt , CMG , OBE , PC , QC (born March 11, 1907 in Jalandhar , India , † February 15, 2003 in London ) was a British lawyer. He served as both a lawyer and a judge between 1932 and 1982 and a member of the House of Lords as Lord Judge from 1964 to 1982 . In addition, he held numerous honorary positions on a national and international level.

family

Wilberforce's great-grandfather, the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce

Wilberforce was born to Samuel Wilberforce and Katherine Sheepshanks in Jalandhar, India. As the youngest son in the family, his father had no prospect of an extensive inheritance. He therefore entered the civil service in 1896, after completing his training at Malvern College and Cambridge University , and emigrated to India. There he held various posts in Punjab in the first few years . The connection with India is deeply rooted in the family history of the Wilberforces, as Wilberforce's grandfather Reginalt served in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot during the Indian Uprising of 1857 .

On his father's side, Samuel Wilberforce , Bishop of Oxford and Winchester, and William Wilberforce , supporter of British abolitionism , were also among his ancestors. Wilberforce's mother was one of seventeen children of John Sheepshanks , the Bishop of Norwich . His maternal grandmother was a distant relative of Oliver Cromwell .

Wilberforce was married to Yvette Marie Lenoan, daughter of a French judge, from 1947 until his death, whom he met during his time in occupied Germany. From this marriage a daughter and a son were born.

education

While his parents stayed in India, Wilberforce grew up with his grandmother and an aunt in England. He attended five different high schools, including the Sandroyd School in Wiltshire . While there, Wilberforce developed conjunctivitis . Since he was largely forbidden to read for this reason, he began to occupy himself with mathematics. Thanks to his mathematical talent, he received a scholarship in 1920 to study at Winchester College , where he achieved excellent results , especially in the field of ancient languages .

After graduating he was awarded a fellowship at New College of Oxford University . There he heard lectures at HWB Joseph and was largely influenced by Herbert Fisher . He decided to study law and was admitted to the Middle Temple barrister in July 1932 . In addition, with his third candidacy in 1932 he was elected a Fellow at All Souls College .

He completed his practical training as a barrister in Wilfrid Hunt's office. During this time, Wilberforce lived in the house of an aunt's friend in Bloomsbury . In addition to his education, he went out a lot with friends, attended concerts and went to various clubs, such as the Garrick Club . Wilberforce was also active in sports. In addition to golf, which he already learned in Sandyfort and where he made numerous social contacts - for example with Lord Russell of Killowen - he was a passionate ice skater and learned to ski in Sils-Maria .

Professional career

Beginnings as a barrister

After completing his practical training as a barrister for Wilberforce, there was no vacancy in Hunt's office, so he decided to open his own law firm. In the beginning, however, it was extremely difficult for him to assert himself against long-established barristers with a permanent customer base. Over time, however, he managed to build up a small group of permanent clients. With the outbreak of the Second World War , however, the firm came to a complete standstill.

Military career

As early as 1938, Wilberforce joined the British armed forces as a reservist . With the outbreak of war in September 1939, he entered active service and was assigned as a lieutenant to a unit of the Royal Artillery in Southend-on-Sea . In February 1940 Wilberforce moved to Norwich as aide-de-camp from Bernard Paget , commander of the 18th Infantry Division . In this position he took part in a three-week operation by the British Army in support of the Norwegian Armed Forces in the defense of Trondheim . After Paget was posted as General Officer Commanding in the headquarters of the Home Forces , Wilberforce was first transferred to Eastern Command and then to Cambridge , where he was promoted to major . There he met the mathematicians Abram Samoilowitsch Besikowitsch and Godfrey Harold Hardy , among others .

In September 1943 Wilberforce was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was immediately responsible for the maintenance of the troops. Working closely with the Entertainments National Service Association , he managed to set up an extensive program. 1944 followed a position at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force . Here he was entrusted with the administration of the British-occupied territories in Germany. Wilberforce was the first British officer to visit the Führerbunker . After the end of the war he was a member of the British Denazification Commission and had the task of revising German legislation. He was also involved in the preparations for the Nuremberg trial against the main war criminals . In 1946 Wilberforce returned to London and accompanied the post of State Secretary in the Control Office for Germany and Austria . In 1947 he finally resigned from the army and resumed work as a barrister.

Activity as a barrister (1947–1961)

After his return, the work as a barrister for Wilberforce turned out to be extremely difficult, as it was difficult for him - due to his long absence during the war - to find mandates. So for a while he considered giving up the legal profession altogether. The situation only improved in the early 1950s and in 1954 he was appointed Crown Attorney by Elizabeth II . He has now appeared in proceedings that have attracted national attention. In 1955 he represented Prince Ernst August von Hanover before the House of Lords and in 1960 reached J. Bollinger v. Costa Brava Wine Co. Ltd. that only champagne from France may carry this designation of origin .

In addition to domestic law cases, Wilberforce has also been involved in international law cases . During his time as barrister he was part of the delegation led by Eric Beckett , who led the United Kingdom in both the Corfu Channel case , the first case to be decided by the International Court of Justice , and in the case known as the Fisheries Case , which deals with border disputes between Great Britain and Norway argued, represented. During this time he also published, together with Alan Campbell , The Law of Restrictive Practices and Monopolies, a standard work on English competition law .

Judicial work

On January 18, 1961, Wilberforce was beaten to Knight Bachelor . and appointed as judge of the Chancery Division that same year . Here he dealt with questions of the trust as well as cases from the area of tax and copyright law . In the Chancery Division he chaired the case of the English footballer George Eastham against Newcastle United in 1963 , as a result of which the transfer system of English football had to be fundamentally reformed. Just three years later appointed him Lord Chancellor as Baron Wilberforce , of the City and County of Kingston-upon-Hull, for Life Peer , the Lord Justice and member of the Privy Council .

This made Wilberforce one of the few judges who were appointed directly to the House of Lords by the High Court of Justice without having previously held a position as a judge at the Court of Appeal, as is usual . In this position he supported the Law Commission in their efforts to reform the English law. Together with Lord Diplock , he was also vice-chairman of the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council . He gained public fame in Great Britain as the head of two investigative commissions. In 1971 he was entrusted with the chairmanship of a commission that dealt with the working conditions and pay of workers in the electricity industry. Just a year later, he took over the mediation between the National Coal Board , a British state-owned company that owned all of Britain's coal mines at the time, and the miners' union .

The main point of contention was the level of wages to be paid to the workers. With the union threatened with a strike, which would have led to blackouts across the UK, the commission was pressed for time. Their final report was completed in just four days and proposed a substantial increase in wages for miners. The reactions to this report varied. While much of the press was positive, Wilberforce faced harsh criticism in the House of Lords and was never again nominated for a committee of inquiry. Upon reaching retirement age, he retired as Law Lord in 1982. During his time as a judge, he tried 465 cases, making him one of the most active judges in the history of the House of Lords.

Working in the field of international law

As a judge

As an influential judge, Wilberforce was not only significantly involved in the further development of English law. Some of the decisions of the House of Lords, which he endorsed, also had a significant impact on the positions taken by the United Kingdom in the area of ​​international law. This concerns, among other things, the decision in the case of the Carl Zeiss Foundation v. Rayner & Keeler Ltd. of 1966, which dealt with the recognition of the GDR under international law , or the case Attorney-General v. Nissan from 1969, in which the House of Lords dealt with the question of the international legal status of the British contingent of a UN peacekeeping force . The special vote that Wilberforce and Edmund Davies in the case of Marble Islands v. I wrote Congreso del Partido in 1981, also had a considerable influence on the British position on state immunity .

As a member of the International Law Association

As a member of the International Law Association, Wilberforce was heavily involved in the further development and codification of international law. In the office of chairman of the organization’s executive board, which he held for 22 years, he ensured, among other things, that the conference, which is organized by the ILA every two years, took place in locations around the world. In addition, was responsible for the publication of the centenary publication of the ILA and modernized the administrative apparatus of the organization. He also developed the register for the reports published in connection with the conferences held, which is still used today.

Other activities

As a member of the British delegation, Wilberforce was involved in the drafting of the Warsaw Convention on International Carriage by Air . Two years later he helped found the British Institute of International and Comparative Law . From 1960 he was also a member of the editorial team of the British Yearbook of International Law , one of the leading journals in the field of international law. Wilberforce was also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and in 1978 was President of the Fédération Internationale du Droit Européen .

Political and social engagement

At the political level, Wilberforce was always cautious. In the British general election in 1950 he ran for the Conservative Party in the Hull constituency, but was defeated by the Labor Party candidate . This remained his only candidacy for political office, although he was considered a promising candidate for a constituency in Yorkshire in the general election the following year . Nevertheless he was interested in politics well into old age and campaigned for European unification throughout his life .

In addition to his legal work, Wilberforce was mainly involved in the fight against slavery , which is not surprising in view of his family roots. In 1932 he became a member of Anti-Slavery International , the oldest human rights organization in the world, of which he was president from 1970 until his death. Wilberforce also did volunteer work in the field of education. In addition to participating in numerous lecture series and conferences, he followed Viscount Simonds in 1967 in the office of High Steward at Oxford University. From 1978 to 1994 he was also Chancellor of the University of Hull .

Awards

Wilberforce was named Companion of the Order of Saints Michael and George in 1956 and an honorary member of the American Society of International Law in 1982 . He also received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Oxford (1967), London (1972) and Bristol (1983). The United States Armed Forces awarded him the Bronze Star .

Publications (selection)

• Richard Orme Wilberforce, Alan Robertson Campbell, Neil PM Elles: The Law of Restrictive Practices and Monopolies . 2nd Edition. Sweet & Maxwell, London 1966, LCCN  66-070116 (One work in three volumes).
• The daily life and administration of the International Law Association . In: Maarten Bos (Ed.): The Present state of international law and other essays. Written in honor of the centenary celebration of the International Law Association 1873–1973 . Kluwer, Deventer 1973, ISBN 90-268-0693-0 , pp. 11-22 .
• International Federation of European Law (Ed.): Possible conflict zones between the community organs in the implementation of community law (=  International Federation of European Law Reports of the ninth congress . Volume 3 ). Sweet & Maxwell, London 1980, ISBN 0-421-27850-1 (English: Possible areas of conflict between community institutions in the implementation of community law .).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Yvette Marie Lenoan on thepeerage.com , accessed December 23, 2012.
2. ^ ^{A b c d e} Richard Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce on thepeerage.com , accessed December 23, 2012.
3. ↑ Lord Wilberforce: Former senjor law lord . In: Independent . February 19, 2003, ISSN  0951-9467 .
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Obituary Lord Wilberforce . In: The Times . February 19, 2003.
5. ^ Ian Brownlie: Richard Orme Wilberforce (1907-2003) Obituary . In: The British Yearbook of International Law . tape 74 , no. 1 . Oxford University Press, 2003, ISSN  0068-2691 , LCCN  20-016936 , ZDB -ID 200524-4 , p. 1–6 , here p. 2 .
6. ↑ London Gazette . No. 42285, HMSO, London, February 21, 1961, p. 1359 ( PDF , accessed December 9, 2012, English).
7. ↑ ^{a b} Lord Wilberforce Obituary. Retrieved December 9, 2012 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b} Lord Hailsham of St. Marylebone: Richard Wilberforce: A Man for All Seasons . In: Maarten Bos, Ian Brownlie (eds.): Liber Amicorum for The Rt. Hon. Lord Wilberforce . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1987, ISBN 0-19-825595-0 , pp. 3–9 , here p. 7 .
9. ^ Richard Wilberforce: Reflections on My Life . Roundtuit Publishing, Durham 2003, ISBN 1-904499-03-1 , pp. 79 f .
10. ^ Richard Wilberforce: Reflections on My Life . Roundtuit Publishing, Durham 2003, ISBN 1-904499-03-1 , pp. 82 .
11. ^ Richard Wilberforce: Reflections on My Life . Roundtuit Publishing, Durham 2003, ISBN 1-904499-03-1 , pp. 187 .
12. ^ Robert McCorquodal: 50th Anniversary of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law . In: International & Comparative Law Quarterly . tape 57 , 2008, p. 747 .
13. ^ Richard Wilberforce: Reflections on My Life . Roundtuit Publishing, Durham 2003, ISBN 1-904499-03-1 , pp. 89 .
14. ^ Richard Wilberforce: Reflections on My Life . Roundtuit Publishing, Durham 2003, ISBN 1-904499-03-1 , pp. 178 f .
15. ^ Ld Wilberforce a High Steward . In: The Daily Telegraph . 29th September 1967.
16. ^ Directory of honorary members on the ASIL website PDF; 78 kB.

Web links

• Wilberforce in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery

Wikiquote: Carl Zeiss Foundation v. Rayner & Keeler, Ltd.  - Quotes (English)