Sir John Laws

It is with great sadness that the Faculty records the death of Sir John Laws on 5 April 2020.

Sir John was born in 1945 and attended Durham School before reading ‘Greats’ (Classics) at Exeter College, Oxford. He was called to the Bar in 1970 and was one of the foremost judges of his generation, serving with great distinction in the High Court from 1992 to 1998 and in the Court of Appeal from 1999 to 2016.

Sir John was also a very fine legal scholar, with particular interests in judicial review and the constitutional balance between the courts and the elected government. He spent the academic year 2016-17 here in Cambridge at the Faculty as Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science, contributing his time and boundless intellectual energy with characteristic generosity, kindness and good humour.

An interview with Sir John in 2017 about his life and work can be found in the Eminent Scholars Archive maintained by the Squire Law Library.