Hail and farewell

I was delighted to see that Sir Lawrence Collins, 67, has been appointed a law lord in succession to Lord Hoffmann, who retires this month.

Sir Lawrence joined the High Court as recently as 2000 after a career as a solicitor and academic, taking on what some might have assumed was going to be a quiet retirement job in the Chancery Division.

He moved through the ranks with impressive speed, overtaking fellow Lords Justices to reach Britain's final court of appeal. Though he will move to the Supreme Court when it takes over from the law lords in October, Sir Lawrence has been appointed just in time to pick up a peerage.

But his career as a law lord will be cut short unless the retirement age for Supreme Court justices is raised to 72 or, better still, 75. Most of the current law lords can carry on until 75 because they were first appointed to the judiciary before the age limit was lowered.

The fact that Sir Lawrence Collins has been appointed at the age of 67 suggests that the Lord Chancellor is sympathetic to raising the retirement age for Supreme Court judges.

The other new law lord is Sir Brian Kerr, 61, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. There is normally a law lord from Northern Ireland and Sir Brian was the obvious choice to succeed Lord Carswell.

There will be one more vacancy before the new court opens: Lord Scott of Foscote reaches retirement age in October. It had been thought his replacement would be announced at the same time as these appointments.

One possible successor would be Sir Anthony Clarke, with Lord Neuberger stepping down from the Lords to replace him as Master of the Rolls. That, in turn, would create another vacancy. So disappointed candidates for the Supreme Court should not give up hope.

Meanwhile, I was saddened to hear that Lord Slynn of Hadley, the former law lord, died this week at the age of 79. Quite apart from his professional accomplishments, he had an unexpectedly mischievous sense of humour.

Posted at April 9, 2009 07:04 PM