Thomas Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill

Thomas Henry Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill, KG, PC, FBA (born 13 October 1933), was the senior law lord in the United Kingdom. "The Times" called him “the pre-eminent lawyer of his generation with a brilliant, incisive mind.” [cite news |first=Frances |last=Gibb |authorlink= |coauthors=Spence, Alex |title=The UK's most powerful lawyers: Lord Bingham of Cornhill |url=http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article3757961.ece |work=The Times |publisher= |date=2008-04-21 |accessdate= ]

Early life and career

Lord Bingham was educated at Sedbergh School (Winder House) and read modern history at Balliol College, Oxford. He married Elizabeth Loxley in 1964; they have one daughter and two sons.

He became a barrister at Fountain Court Chambers in London, and became a QC in 1972. He was appointed a High Court judge in 1980, and promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1986.

enior judicial career

Lord Bingham became Master of the Rolls in 1992, and then Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales in 1996. In England and Wales, he was the highest-ranking judge in regular courtroom service; he was personally responsible for adding "and Wales" to the office's title.

He had been created a life peer as Baron Bingham of Cornhill, of Boughrood in the County of Powys in 1996, when he moved to the House of Lords. He was succeeded as Lord Chief Justice by Lord Woolf in 2000, who had likewise succeeded him in 1996 as Master of the Rolls. In this year, he was the first "appointed" Senior Law Lord - a position formerly assumed by the longest serving Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.

He was a strong advocate for divorcing the judicial branch of the House of Lords from Parliament by setting up a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which was accomplished under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. The title of the office he then held will become "the President of the Supreme Court" once that court comes online in October 2009, but Lord Bingham was scheduled to retire at 2008. He has said that he will be "very sorry" not to become the first President. [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2901511.ece]

Honours

In 2005, he was appointed a Knight of the Garter, an honour in the personal gift of the Queen and one only rarely conferred on judges (Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone was a previous holder and a previous Lord Chancellor). He received the title along with Lady Soames and John Major. Additionally, he is the Chairman of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.

On Thursday 16 November 2006, Lord Bingham delivered the sixth annual Sir David Williams lecture hosted by the [http://cpl.law.cam.ac.uk/ Centre for Public Law] at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. The Lecture was entitled [http://cpl.law.cam.ac.uk/past_activities/the_rt_hon_lord_bingham_the_rule_of_law.php "The Rule of Law"] .

On 17 January 2008, Lord Bingham presented the annual Hansard Lecture at the University of Southampton.

Since 2001, Lord Bingham has held the office of High Steward of the University of Oxford, the second highest office in the academic hierarchy, and in 2003 he came second to Chris Patten in the election of the Chancellor. Lord Bingham is also the Visitor of Balliol College

External links

* [http://www.tombingham.com/cv.php CV] from tombingham.com