Robert Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley

:"Robert Goff redirects here. For the football player of the same name see Robert Goff (football player)."

Robert Lionel Archibald Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley PC DCL FBA is a British Judge.

Lord Goff, High Steward of the University of Oxford, retired in 1998 as Senior Law Lord after more than a decade as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in the House of Lords. Prior to being created a Law lord and receiving a life peerage as Baron Goff of Chieveley, of Chieveley in the County of Berkshire in 1986, Lord Goff studied at Eton College and at New College, Oxford.

He served in the army and as a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, practised as a barrister and Queen's Counsel, and was appointed to the High Court in 1975 and to the Court of Appeal in 1982. Lord Goff, co-author of Goff & Jones, The Law of Restitution, is the acknowledged father of English restitution law, and has served on many important cases in the House of Lords

He is the President of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and was awarded the Grand Gross (First Class) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribution to British awareness of German law. Lord Goff is considered by many to be largely responsible for the growing interest in the United Kingdom in comparative law in general.

Famous judgments

Lord Goff gave many important and prescient judgments, including his judgments in the following cases:
*"Spiliada v Cansulex Ltd." [1987] AC 460
*"Attorney-General v Observer Ltd. and Others." [1990] 1 AC 109
*"Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale v. Islington LBC" [1996] AC 669 (dissenting) "No genetic engineering is required, only that the warm sun of judicial creativity should exercise its benign influence rather than remain hidden behind the dark clouds of legal history."
*"Henderson v Merrett Syndicate" [1995] 2 AC 145
*"White v Jones" [1995] AC 207
*"Kleinwort Benson Ltd v Lincoln City Council" [1999] 2 AC 349
*"Re Pinochet" [http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199899/ldjudgmt/jd990115/pino02.htm]
*"R v Gough" [1993] 2 All ER 724
*"R v R" [1992] 1 AC 599
*"Lipkin Gorman v Karpnale Ltd and anor" [1992] 4 All ER 331
*"The Pioneer Container" [1994] 2 AC 324
*"Re Denley's Trust Deed" [1969] 1 Ch 373
*"Lord Napier v Kershaw" [1993] AC 713
*"B.P. Exploration Co. (Libya) Ltd. v Hunt" [1979] 1 WLR. 783

ee also

*House of Lords
*Restitution

Notes