Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss

Infobox Officeholder
honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable
name = The Baroness Butler-Sloss
honorific-suffix = GBE PC


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caption =
office = Deputy Coroner of the Queen's Household and Assistant Deputy Coroner for Surrey
term_start = 7 September 2006
term_end = June 2007
office2 = President of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice
term_start2 = 1999
term_end2 = April 2005
predecessor2 =
successor2 = Sir Mark Potter
office3 = Lord Justice of Appeal
term_start3 = 1988
term_end3 = 1999
office4 = High Court judge, Family Division
term_start4 = 1979
term_end4 = 1988
birth_date = Birth date and age|1933|08|10|df=y
birth_place = Buckinghamshire, England
death_date =
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nationality = British
spouse = Joseph Butler-Sloss
partner =
relations = Sir Cecil Havers (father)
Nigel Havers (nephew)
children =
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =
profession =
net worth =
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website =
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Anne Elizabeth Oldfield Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss (née Havers) GBE PC (born 10 August 1933) is a retired English judge. Until June 2007 she was responsible, as Deputy Coroner of the Queen's Household and Assistant Deputy Coroner for Surrey for overseeing the inquests into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed. She stood down from that task with effect from that date, and the inquest was conducted by Lord Justice Scott Baker.

Born Anne Elizabeth Oldfield Havers, in Buckinghamshire, [ [http://www.astrotheme.fr/en/portraits/c2hHvZcgFyd6.htm Astrology: Dame Elizabeth BUTLER-SLOSS, born 1933/08/10, Horoscope, biography, planets, picture and map of the heavens with Astrotheme ] ] her father was judge Sir Cecil Havers. She was sister to the late Lord Chancellor the Lord Havers, and is aunt to his son, actor Nigel Havers. She was educated at Wycombe Abbey School after Broomfield House School, Kew.

She was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1955. In 1958, she married Joseph Butler-Sloss. She was appointed a Registrar at the Principal Registry of the Family Division in 1970. In 1979, she became the fourth woman to be appointed as a High Court judge, [LondonGazette|issue=47968|startpage=12354|date=2 October 1979|accessdate=2008-01-04] after Elizabeth Lane, Rose Heilbron, and Margaret Booth. As were all previous female High Court judges, she was assigned to the Family Division. She was also made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). [LondonGazette|issue=51202|startpage=599|date=18 January 1980|accessdate=2008-01-04]

In 1988, she became the first woman appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal (judge of the Court of Appeal), [LondonGazette|issue=48072|startpage=899|date=19 January 1988|accessdate=2008-01-04] having chaired the Cleveland child abuse inquiry in the previous year. In 1999, she became President of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice, [LondonGazette|issue=55633|notarchive=yes|startpage=10807|date=11 October 1999|accessdate=2008-01-04] the first woman to hold this position and the highest-ranking woman judge in the United Kingdom until Brenda Hale became the first female Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, in January 2004.

She was advanced to the rank of Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 2005 New Year Honours. [LondonGazette|issue=57509|supp=yes|notarchive=yes|startpage=7|date=31 December 2004|accessdate=2008-01-04] On 12 January 2005, it was announced that she was retiring, being replaced as President of the Family Division by Sir Mark Potter, then a Lord Justice of Appeal.

She is Chairman of the Security Commission. On 3 May 2006, it was announced [LondonGazette|issue=57972|supp=yes|notarchive=yes|startpage=6055|date=3 May 2006|accessdate=2008-01-04] by the House of Lords Appointments Commission that she would be one of seven new life peers - so-called 'people's peers'. She was gazetted as Baroness Butler-Sloss, of Marsh Green in the County of Devon, on 16 June 2006 (dated 13 June 2006). [LondonGazette|issue=58013|notarchive=yes|startpage=8261|date=16 June 2006|accessdate=2008-01-04] On 4 August 2006 she was appointed to the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved for a period of five years. [LondonGazette|issue=58062|notarchive=yes|startpage=10685|date=4 August 2006|accessdate=2007-11-21]

On 7 September 2006 she was appointed as Deputy Coroner of the Queen's Household and Assistant Deputy Coroner for Surrey for the purpose of hearing the inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. On 24 April 2007, she announced she was stepping down in June 2007, saying she lacked the experience required to deal with an inquest with a jury. The role of coroner for the inquests was transferred to Lord Justice Scott Baker. This had been preceded by the overturning by the High Court of her earlier decision to hold the inquest without a jury.

She became Chancellor of the University of the West of England in 1993 and an Honorary Fellow of St. Hilda's College, Oxford, Peterhouse, Cambridge, King's College London, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. She sits on the Selection Panel for Queen's Counsel.

Famous judgements

*"Re B (Consent to Treatment: Capacity)" [2002] EWHC 429

References

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20070502003242/http://www.butler-sloss-inquests.gov.uk/biography/index.htm Biography] from the Judicial Communications Office, archive copy from the Internet Archive
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,672289,00.html No-nonsense approach of the right-to-die judge] – a profile of Butler-Sloss at Guardian Unlimited, 22 March 2002
* [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/minutes/060725/ldminute.htm Announcement of her introduction at the House of Lords] , House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 25 July 2006
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5307730.stm Ex-judge tipped for Diana inquest] at BBC News Online, 2 September 2006
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5322932.stm Diana inquest to be held in 2007] at BBC News Online, 7 September 2006
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6588369.stm Diana inquest coroner steps down] at BBC News Online, 24 April 2007