The Lord Devlin | |
|---|---|
 Lord Devlin in 1962 by Walter Bird | |
| Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | |
| In office 11 October 1961 – 10 January 1964 | |
| Preceded by | The Lord Tucker |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Donovan |
| Lord Justice of Appeal | |
| In office 8 January 1960 – 11 October 1961 | |
| Succeeded by | Sir Kenneth Diplock |
| Justice of the High Court | |
| In office 14 October 1948 – 8 January 1960 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 November 1905 Chislehurst, Kent, England |
| Died | 9 August 1992 (aged 86) Pewsey, Wiltshire |
| Spouse |
Madeleine Hilda Oppenheimer
(m. 1932) |
| Children | 6 |
| Alma mater | Christ's College, Cambridge |
Patrick Arthur Devlin, Baron Devlin, PC, FBA (25 November 1905 – 9 August 1992) was a British judge and legal philosopher. The second-youngest English High Court judge in the 20th century, he served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1960 to 1964.
In 1959, Devlin headed the Devlin Commission, which reported on the State of Emergency declared by the colonial governor of Nyasaland. In 1985 he became the first British judge to write a book about a case he had presided over, the 1957 trial of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams.[1] Devlin was involved in the debate about homosexuality in British law; in response to the Wolfenden report, he argued, contrary to H. L. A. Hart, that a common public morality should be upheld.
Devlin's daughter Clare, then aged 81, said in 2021 that her father had sexually abused her from the age of 7 until her teens.[2]
- ^ Devlin, Patrick; "Easing the Passing", London, The Bodley Head, 1985
- ^ Campbell, Beatrix (25 July 2021). "'Our silence permits perpetrators to continue': one woman's fight to expose a father's abuse". The Observer. Retrieved 25 July 2021.