Michael Tugendhat

Sir Michael Tugendhat
Born	21 October 1944 (1944-10-21) (age 67)
Other names	The Hon. Mr Justice Tugendhat
Occupation	High Court judge
Known for	Media law cases

Sir Michael George Tugendhat (born 21 October 1944^[1]), styled The Hon. Mr Justice Tugendhat, in legal writing Tugendhat J, is a High Court judge in England and Wales. He is the UK's senior media judge, taking over that role from Justice Eady on 1 October 2010.^[2] His appointment was welcomed by some journalists who believed he held "more enlightened beliefs"^[2] than did his predecessor.

Michael Tugendhat is the son of Dr Georg Tugendhat, an immigrant from Austria who founded a petrochemical refinery, and his wife Marie Littledale.^[3][4] His elder brother Christopher Tugendhat is a politician, businessman, and author.^[5] He is married and has four sons.^[6]

Tugendhat attended Ampleforth College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he studied philosophy and classics.^[7][6] He won the Henry Fellowship to attend Yale Law School and studied at the Hague Academy of International Law before being called to the Bar of the Inner Temple in 1969.^[6] He then joined Five Raymond Buildings (5RB), a set of barristers specialising in media and entertainment law. ^[8][9] Tugendhat became a Queen's Counsel in 1986. He became a Recorder of the Crown Court in 1994 and a deputy judge sitting in the High Court of Justice in 1995.^[8] In 2000, he became a judge sitting in the appeal courts of Jersey and Guernsey.^[8] He was appointed a High Court Judge, Queen's Bench division, in 2003.^[1] In 2010 he was appointed to be the Judge in Charge of the Queen's Bench jury lists.^[10] He is a fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.^[1] He was formerly on the management committee of the Advice on Individual Rights in Europe Centre.^[9][11]

Described by The Guardian as "Britain's leading expert on privacy law", Tugendhat told the Commons' select committee on Culture, Media and Sport:^[12]

"We must never underestimate the asset we have in the free press and I am afraid a free press is bound to be one that occasionally gets it wrong either by malice or mistake.

Notable cases

As an advocate

In 2000 Tugendhat acted for David and Victoria Beckham, who were petitioning the High Court to prevent the publication of a biography of them by Andrew Morton. The Beckhams claimed a portion of the book was derived from confidential information passed on by their former bodyguard, who was already enjoined from making public disclosures about the couple. Tugendhat called the bodyguard's conduct "a very bad case of disloyalty and breach of confidentiality" but opposing council Geoffrey Robertson QC argued Morton and his publisher enjoyed protection of their free speech in this regard. The parties reached an out of court settlement and the book was published.^[13]

In 2001 he represented the Sunday Times newspaper in its efforts to publish extracts a book by former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson. The Attorney General sought to compel newspapers to gain the approval of the Government before publishing such sensitive information. The court (Lord Phillips, Lord Justice Tuckey, and Lord Justice Longmore) ruled that, as the information had already been published in Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, it was already in the public domain and so the restraint on publication in the UK couldn't be justified.^[14]

Later in 2001 he acted for a number of newspapers including The Times, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail, which sought to overturn a blanket ban on publishing unauthorised disclosures be former MI5 agents, including those of David Shayler.^[15] The House of Lords ruled that the statutory prohibition on agents revealing secret information was proportional and did not contravene Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.^[16][17]

Also in 2001 Tugendhat represented internet service provider Demon Internet, which sought to amend a ruling which would hold it responsible if any of its customers used the Demon service to identify the new identities of the killers of James Bulger. The court amended to the order to indemnify Demon and other ISPs providing they took "take all reasonable steps" to remove the infringing material. The order remained more onerous than Demon had wished - Tugendhat said of it "Happy would not be the word, but we have all signed it."^[18]

In 2002, in the case Theakston v Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd, he represented TV presenter Jamie Theakston, who sought to injunct newspapers from publishing a story about Theakston visiting a London brothel, arguing that, as the alleged visit took place in private, The Sunday People's publication of details infringed his right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Denying the petition to impose the injunction, Mr Justice Ouseley ruled "It is not inherent in the nature of a brothel that all or anything that transpires within is confidential."^[19][20]

In 2003 Tugendhat appeared for actor Michael Douglas and his wife Catherine Zeta Jones in the case Douglas v Hello! Ltd before the High Court. Douglas and Jones had sold rights to publish photographs of their 2000 wedding to celebrity news magazine OK!, but a paparazzo surreptitiously photographed the proceedings and sold his photographs to OK's competitor Hello. Douglas, Jones, and OK! sued Hello's publisher, alleging their privacy had been invaded and claiming £1.75 million in damages.^[21] Refuting the claim that the couple's selling photos of their wedding rendered the event "not genuinely private", Tugendhat argued "If Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones could not offer a slice without offering the whole cake, then their own freedom of expression is diminished."^[22] The Douglases were successful in their claim; Hello appealed to the Court of Appeals which denied the appeal. Hello then appealed to the House of Lords which (in a combined ruling with OBG Ltd v Allan), also denied the appeal.^[23]

As a judge

In January 2010, he overturned a superinjunction imposed on behalf footballer John Terry which prevented the media from revealing details of his affair with team-mate Wayne Bridge's former girlfriend, Vanessa Perroncel, saying he did not feel the order was "necessary or proportionate".^[24] He also criticised Terry's lawyers for not notifying newspapers of the action they were taking.

In June 2010, his ruling in favour of Lynn Barber and the Telegraph Media Group over Barber's review of Sarah Thornton's book Seven Days in the Art World was said to "raise the bar for libel claimants".^[25] Barber had stated that she had given her interviewees copy approval, a practice of which journalists would "disapprove", which Thornton considered defamatory. Justice Tugendhat accepted the argument of the Telegraph Media Group's solicitor advocate David Price that there should be a "threshold of seriousness" for libel claims to prevent trivial claims and that a claimant should be able to demonstrate a "substantial effect" on their reputation in order to prove defamation.

In May 2011 Mr Justice Tugendhat partially lifted a gagging order brought by Sir Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, just hours after details of his alleged extra-marital affair were made public in the House of Lords. Mr Justice Tugendhat varied the injunction to allow publication of Goodwin's name, but not details of the alleged relationship and the name of the woman said to be involved. ^[26]

Bibliography

• The Law of Privacy and the Media (joint editor w/Iain Christie, 2002) ISBN 978-0199254309, Oxford University Press
• Commercial Fraud: Civil Liability, Human Rights, and Money Laundering (with Janet Ulph and James Glister) ISBN 978-0198268673, Oxford University Press

External links

• Interview with Michael Tugendhat, Spiked, 22 October 2002

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "The Hon Mr Justice Tugendhat". Debrett's People of Today. Debrett's. http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/t/6609/Michael+George.aspx. Retrieved November 21, 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Preston, Peter (19 September, 2010). "Mr Justice Tugendhat the libel judge of our dreams? Let's wait and see". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/19/michael-tugendhat-libel-judge. Retrieved October 17, 2010. 
3. ^ "German intelligence operations, agents and suspected agents". MI5, the Security Service. 27 August 2009. https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/27-august-2009-releases-german-intelligence-operations-agents-and-suspected-agents.html. 
4. ^ "Papers of Dr Georg Tugendhat, industrialist and economist, concerning the Manchester Oil Refinery Limited and related interests, 1936-1964". http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/03101403.html. 
5. ^ Kunal Dutta (15 September 2010). "Mr Justice Eady to be replaced as senior judge on libel and privacy". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mr-justice-eady-to-be-replaced-as-senior-judge-on-libel-and-privacy-2079634.html. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} "The Law of Privacy and the Media:About the Author(s)". Oxford University Press. March 2006. http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Law/EntertainmentMediaandSport/~~/dmlldz11c2EmY2k9OTc4MDE5OTI4MzQzOQ==. 
7. ^ "Michael Tugendhat (W62) appointed as Senior Media Judge". Ampleforth College. 15 September 2010. http://www.oa.ampleforth.org.uk/oa-news/article/date/2010/09/michael-tugendhat-w62-appointed-as-senior-media-judge/. Retrieved 4 May 2011. 
8. ^ ^{a b c} "Tugendhat QC appointed to the Bench". 5RB. 8 May 2003. http://www.5rb.com/newsitem/Tugendhat-QC-appointed-to-the-Bench. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "Memorandum submitted by Michael Tugendhat QC to the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport". 17 February 2003. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmcumeds/458/3022503.htm. 
10. ^ "Appointment of new judge in charge of the Queen’s Bench Jury and Non-Jury Lists". Judicial Communications Office news release. 13/09/2010. http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/media/media-releases/2010/news-release-2510. 
11. ^ Henry Reichhold (2008). "Celebrating 15 Years from 1993 – 2008". The AIRE Centre. http://www.airecentre.org/data/files/resources/7/The_AIRE_Centre_Report.pdf. 
12. ^ Clare Dyer (18 April 2003). "Privacy law expert joins high court". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/apr/18/law.medialaw. 
13. ^ "Posh and Becks settle book row". BBC News. 30 August 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/903377.stm. 
14. ^ Richard Norton-Taylor (26 January 2001). "MI6's lawyers lose spy book appeal". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/jan/26/richardnortontaylor. 
15. ^ Richard Norton-Taylor (18 July 2001). "Guardian enters Shayler case to contest gagging". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/jul/18/theguardian.pressandpublishing. 
16. ^ "R v Shayler (case report)". 5RB. http://www.5rb.com/casereports/detail.asp?case=157. 
17. ^ "Public interest defence not available in secrets prosecution". The Times. March 22 2002. 
18. ^ "Net firm wins Bulger ruling". BBC News. 10 July 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1432125.stm. 
19. ^ Joshua Rozenberg (15 February 2002). "Why judge let prostitutes tell on Theakston". The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1384946/Why-judge-let-prostitutes-tell-on-Theakston.html. 
20. ^ Mr Justice Ouseley (14 February 2011). "Judgement (in the case between Theakston and MGN Limited)". Queen's Bench Division, High Court of Justice. http://portal.nasstar.com/75/files/Theakston-v-MGN%20QBD%2014%20Feb%202002.pdf. 
21. ^ "Zeta Jones and Douglas begin court battle". The Telegraph. 3 February 2003. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1420932/Zeta-Jones-and-Douglas-begin-court-battle.html. 
22. ^ Ciar Byrne (7 March 2003). "Zeta Jones offered wedding 'slice". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/mar/07/pressandpublishing.privacy. 
23. ^ "2007 UKHL 21 : Judgments - OBG Limited and others (Appellants) v. Allan and others (Respondents)Douglas and another and others (Appellants) v. Hello! Limited and others (Respondents)Mainstream Properties Limited (Appellants) v. Young and others and another (Respondents)". House of Lords. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200607/ldjudgmt/jd070502/obg-1.htm. 
24. ^ Tryhorn, Chris (30 January 2010). "High court overturns superinjunction granted to England captain John Terry". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/29/premier-league-footballer-gagging-order. Retrieved November 21, 2010. 
25. ^ Greenslade, Roy (16 June 2010). "Judge's libel ruling enhances press freedom". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/jun/16/medialaw-telegraphmediagroup. Retrieved November 21, 2010. 
26. ^ Sir Fred Goodwin gagging order partially lifted by high court http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/may/19/sir-fred-goodwin-gagging-order-lifted Thurs May 19 2011 retrieved 26/05/2011

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Name	Tugendhat, Michael
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Date of birth	21 October 1944
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