| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Hope of Craighead | |
| Office: | Convenor of the Crossbench Peers |
| Term Start: | 28 September 2015 |
| Term End: | September 2019 |
| Predecessor: | The Lord Laming |
| Successor: | The Lord Judge |
| Office2: | Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom |
| Nominator2: | Jack Straw |
| Term Start2: | 1 October 2009 |
| Term End2: | 26 June 2013 |
| Appointer2: | Elizabeth II |
| President2: | The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers |
| Predecessor2: | Position created |
| Successor2: | The Baroness Hale of Richmond |
| Office3: | Second Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary |
| Term Start3: | 21 April 2009 |
| Term End3: | 1 October 2009 |
| Predecessor3: | The Lord Hoffmann |
| Successor3: | Position abolished |
| Office4: | Lord of Appeal in Ordinary |
| Term Start4: | 1 October 1996 |
| Term End4: | 1 October 2009 |
| Predecessor4: | The Lord Keith of Kinkel |
| Successor4: | Position abolished |
| Office5: | Lord Justice General Lord President of the Court of Session |
| Term Start5: | 1989 |
| Term End5: | 1996 |
| Predecessor5: | The Lord Emslie |
| Successor5: | The Lord Rodger of Earlsferry |
| Office6: | Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde |
| Term Start6: | 1998 |
| Term End6: | 2013 |
| Successor6: | The Lord Smith of Kelvin |
| Deputy6: | Sir Jim McDonald |
| Office7: | Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal |
| Term Start7: | 28 February 1995 Life Peerage |
| Birth Date: | 27 June 1938 |
| Birthname: | James Arthur David Hope |
| Nationality: | British |
| Spouse: | Katharine Mary Kerr |
| Residence: | Edinburgh |
| Alma Mater: | St John's College, Cambridge; University of Edinburgh |
| Profession: | Advocate |
| Party: | Crossbencher |
| Branch: | British Army |
| Serviceyears: | 1957–59 |
| Rank: | Lieutenant |
| Unit: | Seaforth Highlanders |
James Arthur David Hope, Baron Hope of Craighead, (born 27 June 1938) is a retired Scottish judge who served as the Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General, Scotland's most senior judge, and later as first Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from 2009 until his retirement in 2013. He had previously been the Second Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. He is the Chief Justice of Abu Dhabi Global Market Courts.
He has published 5 volumes of his diaries, archived his papers at the National Library of Scotland, and been involved in numerous controversies. He continues in private practice as an arbitrator. His other appointments have included Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Convenor of the Crossbench peers in the House of Lords.
A descendant of Charles Hope, Lord Granton, Lord President of the Court of Session from 1811 to 1841, through his third son,[1] David Hope was born on 27 June 1938 to Edinburgh lawyer Arthur Henry Cecil Hope, OBE, WS and Muriel Ann Neilson Hope (née Collie).[2] He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Rugby School. He completed National Service as an officer with the Seaforth Highlanders, between 1957 and 1959, where he reached the rank of lieutenant. In 1959 he commenced his studies as an Open Scholar at St John's College, Cambridge where he read Classics. He graduated with a B.A. degree in 1962.[3] He then returned to Scotland and studied at the Faculty of Law of the University of Edinburgh, graduating LL.B. in 1965.
In 1966, Hope married Katharine Mary Kerr, daughter of solicitor Mark Kerr WS, with whom he has twin sons and a daughter. Lord Hope of Craighead resides in Moray Place in Edinburgh and in 2014 appeared in a television documentary programme about his home and the street in which it stands.[4]
Hope was admitted as an advocate in 1965 and became a Queen's Counsel in 1978. He served as Standing Junior Counsel in Scotland to the Board of the Inland Revenue from 1974 to 1978, and as an Advocate Depute from 1978 to 1982, prosecuting cases on behalf of the Crown. Between 1985 and 1986, he was Chairman of the Medical Appeal Tribunal and the Pensions Appeal Tribunal. From 1986 to 1989 he was Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. He is an Honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn.[5]
In 1989, Hope became a Senator of the College of Justice, taking the judicial title Lord Hope, and was appointed directly from the practising Bar to the offices of Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General. He was made a Privy Counsellor at this time, and was awarded a life peerage in the 1995 New Year Honours. His title was gazetted as Baron Hope of Craighead, of Bamff in the District of Perth and Kinross on 28 February 1995. In 1996, Lord Hope of Craighead retired as Lord President to become a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, and was succeeded by Lord Rodger of Earlsferry. On 21 April 2009, he was appointed Second Senior Law Lord, succeeding Lord Hoffmann. On 1 October 2009, Hope became one of the first Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and its first Deputy President. He retired from that position on 26 June 2013.
Lord Hope of Craighead, having retired from the Bench in the UK, became available privately as a practising arbitrator. In October 2013 he joined Brick Court chambers in London as an arbitrator.[6] Additionally he joined Terra Firma chambers in Edinburgh as an arbitrator from June 2023.[7]
From October 2015 to December 2023 and continuing, Lord Hope of Craighead served as remunerated Chief Justice of Abu Dhabi Global Market Courts.[8] In 2024 in the House of Lords Register of Interests he declared an income of £257,000 for the period 1 January – 31 December 2023 for performing his duties.[9]
In November 2014 it was announced that Lord Hope of Craighead would be appointed as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2015.[10] This position ceased to be occupied by him after 27 May 2016.[11]
He served as Convenor of the Crossbench peers in the House of Lords from 2015 to 2019.[12]
In November 2014, Lord Hope of Craighead donated to the National Library of Scotland 16 boxes containing 90 files spanning the period 1953 - 2014.[13] Access to all these documents is unrestricted. The Inventory references: 1-79 Professional Papers (1-46 Advocate’s Opinions, 1978-1989; 47-55 Dean of Faculty Notes and Draft Letters, 1986-1989; 56-78 Judicial Opinions, 1989-1994; 79 Financial Papers, 1965-1989); 80 Personal Papers, 1959-1962; 81-90 Ephemera, 1953-2014.[14] The first 46 items in the Inventory, Advocate’s Opinions, 1978-1989, were produced under legal professional privilege.
Starting in 2018, Lord Hope of Craighead's diaries were published in five volumes. These are:
Senior Counsel 1978-1986: Lord Hope's Diaries Volume I[15]
Dean of Faculty 1986-1989: Lord Hope's Diaries Volume II[16]
Lord President 1989-1996: Lord Hope's Diaries Volume III[17]
House of Lords 1996-2009: Lord Hope's Diaries Volume IV[18]
UK Supreme Court. and Afterwards 2009-2015: Lord Hope's Diaries Volume V[19]
The works chronicled his life, experiences and rise to the top, from Senior Counsel to his retirement from the Supreme Court. They contain observations on his judicial colleagues and disclose information as to panel deliberations, as appears in the Controversies section below.
On 22 December 1989 Lord Dervaird, a Scottish judge, resigned from the bench after a mere two years’ service.[20] On 17 January 1990 the press reported that three senior Scottish judges had been questioned by Lord Hope, the Lord President, as to their possible involvement in vice rings or homosexual behaviour.[21] This reportage arose because Lord Hope had called a meeting of newspaper editors at his Edinburgh home in which he detailed the rumours "unattributively" regarding three Court of Session judges (out of a then total of 24 judges).[22] This meeting caused the scandals to be "splashed across the front pages."[23] By December 2016 government papers covering these events had been declassified and were now available to the public. This resulted in human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell demanding an apology from Malcolm Rifkind, the former Scottish Secretary, for his actions in forcing Lord Dervaird from judicial office because of rumours of his being homosexual.[24] Dervaird’s sudden resignation followed almost immediately on a meeting between himself, Rifkind and Lord Hope. Margaret Thatcher, the then prime minister, was informed that Rifkind and Lord Hope considered that Dervaird should be asked to resign. It was this pressure to resign that was the subject of Peter Tatchell's complaint.
Lord Hope of Craighead, then deputy President of the UK Supreme Court, created a sensation in November 2011 by allegedly suggesting that Scottish Judges were clandestinely hostile to cases being reviewed on appeal to the Supreme Court in London.[25] He was reported by Lucy Adams of the Glasgow Herald as saying: "There is [in England and Wales] none of the feeling of antipathy towards cases being sent to London that lies just below the surface here in Scotland."[26] These words were subsequently described by Lord Hope of Craighead as misreported or not said at all, despite the journalist publicly offering a recording.[27] The version of the speech Lord Hope of Craighead approved for posting on the Supreme Court website does not include the contested wording.[28] He maintained in response a complete news blackout at a subsequent speech-giving in Glasgow a month later.[27]
This speech was also described as "an unprecedented counter-attack on the Scottish Government for its assault on the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court earlier this year."[29] The memorial lecture by Lord Hope of Craighead contains key passages as though hearsay from the mouth of the recently deceased Lord Rodger of Earlsferry either as from a private conversation (no public trace of the alleged views being known) or as Lord Hope of Craighead's anticipation of what Lord Rodger of Earlsferry would have said.[30]
Despite the serious professional differences and disparaging personal remarks regarding Baroness Hale of Richmond (see below under Lord Hope of Craighead's anti-women's agenda stance), Lord Hope of Craighead failed to recuse himself from selection panels for important judicial appointments (1) in 2012 for the position of President of the Supreme Court, and (2) in 2013 on Lord Hope of Craighead's own retirement for the position of Deputy President of the Supreme Court.[31] For each of these positions a small number of candidates were interviewed, including in both cases Baroness Hale of Richmond, who was a very senior justice whose appointment to the highest court dated from the pre-Supreme Court House of Lords. The UK Commission for Judicial Appointments did not make these specific appointments but in cases where they do appoint, they are obliged to "operate in a way that is fair and transparent."[32]
Long-standing fundamental differences of opinion and perspective with Supreme Court colleague Baroness Hale of Richmond, the first and at the time only female member of the Court, were revealed by Lord Hope of Craighead's diaries1996-2009 and following.[33] This provoked a "head on" response from Baroness Hale of Richmond in a major public lecture (at Girton College, Cambridge) in which she defended her view that women were equal to men, deserved the same rights and had a different perspective due to their different life experiences.[34] She responded to Lord Hope of Craighead's accusation of her having an "agenda": "So why is that ‘an agenda’? Quite simply, because we have not yet achieved the equality we seek in the law, let alone in life."[35] As at 2024 there has been no public apology from Lord Hope of Craighead, and no public rapprochement on this issue.
Lord Hope of Craighead's diaries have been analysed by academic writer Lewis Graham. He highlights three incidents as described by the diary writer as together establishing a "deeply concerning" possibility and pattern of judges being included or excluded from hearing a case based on outcomes to be expected if they were to sit on specific important cases. Graham cites consideration by Hope of excluding Northern Irish Lord Kerr from a devolution case; successful lobbying, according to Lord Hope of Craighead, by Lord Hoffmann to exclude Baroness Hale of Richmond from a Jamaican death penalty appeal; and Lord Judge asking, according to Lord Hope of Craighead, to be included on a miscarriage of justice case in order to further his pre-existing views. Whilst accepting that the truth of Lord Hope of Craighead's account could be doubted, Graham observed that the mere possibility of it being correct "strikes at the heart of judicial neutrality and procedural fairness".[36]
Lord Hope of Craighead was lauded by Iain Duncan Smith in his published attack on the Chinese government. Duncan Smith noted Lord Hope of Craighead's contribution of support in January 2021 to an amendment to the Trade Act 2021 whereby the government would be required to ensure "that the UK does not trade with genocidal regimes. Importantly, with the United Nations having shown itself incapable of making such decisions, the determination of whether genocide has taken place would be made by the High Court of England and Wales."[37]
In 2023 Lord Hope of Craighead introduced an amendment to the "highly controversial" Public Order Bill at the report stage. The amendment was adopted by the Conservative government.[38] It was designed to affect policing around abortion clinics. Police were to intervene where there was "serious disruption". The amendment widely defined this as any activity that "prevents or would hinder to more than a minor degree the individuals or the organisation from carrying out their daily activities."[39]
In January 2023 Lord Hope of Craighead was widely reported for spontaneously intervening publicly against proposals by the Scottish government to liberalise conditions for changes in the legal status of transgender people.[40] [41] Asked about Lord Hope of Craighead's suggestion that legal challenge to a Westminster government veto would be a waste of money, Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf stated that it was not a waste of money because he was "not prepared to accept a Westminster veto over legislation that was passed by a majority".[42]
In 2024 the Society of Legal Scholars published the results of an academic investigation by way of semi-structured interviews given by 13 very senior judicial figures from across the United Kingdom, some attributed and some anonymously.[43] The actions of Lord Hope of Craighead in disclosing judicial panel deliberations was a focus of the study. The disclosures by Lord Hope of Craighead were widely condemned by the interviewees as a transgression due to breach of collegiality or loyalty to other judges, and as constituting inappropriate conduct from a former judge. Additionally, the publishing of confidential deliberations was widely seen as potentially threatening “ the procedural and institutional legitimacy of the court.”[44] Only one person, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood, regarded Lord Hope of Craighead's disclosures as defensible.[45]
Lord Hope of Craighead in April 2024 gave an interview to the Times criticising the Scottish Government’s new law in the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act.[46] The Act was highly controversial.[47] The new law was introduced following independent review recommendations by Lord Bracadale.[48] The purpose of the Act was to criminalise stirring up hatred towards vulnerable people and towards minority groups within society. Police Scotland maintained they were not adversely impacted by coping with the change, and would not be diverted from attending to serious crime.[49] [50] Lord Hope of Craighead claimed that the police carried an extraordinary burden and were being deluged. He is reported as attacking the Act and claiming it should be repealed.[51] [52] He is also reported as accusing the Scottish Government of gesture politics.[53] Angela Constance, the Scottish justice secretary, maintained that the Act was necessary.[49] [50] Lord Hope of Craighead had at the material time no responsibilities in respect of Police Scotland, or ongoing administration of justice in Scotland.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, on its second attempt to establish a deportation scheme to Rwanda for illegal migrants to the UK, faced determined opposition on the issue from the Labour party.[54] On 20 March 2024, Lord Hope of Craighead, as an independent peer (no longer leader of the cross-bench peers) successfully moved in the House of Lords an amendment of his own to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill whereby implementation of the contested legislation would be delayed pending the decision of a proposed panel of experts tasked with deciding whether Rwanda satisfied certain safeguarding criteria.[55] [56] [57] The amendment was removed by the House of Commons on Monday 15 April 2024 but reinstated in substance once again by the House of Lords on Wednesday 17 April 2024.[58] Speaking on the BBC radio programme “Today” on 18 April 2024, Lord Hope of Craighead defended his intervention on the basis that he was seeking to correct a defect in the legislation.[59]
The incoming Labour government in the King’s Speech of 2024 signalled its intention to reduce the numbers in the House of Lords (then approaching 800) in various ways including instituting a retirement age of 80 for all.[60] The 86-year-old Lord Hope of Craighead (not 68 as he initially described himself) spoke against this, and was not willing to accept any mandatory retirement age.[61] [62]
As Deputy President of the Supreme Court
As Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
As Lord President
As Lord Justice General
The Lord Hope of Craighead became Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde in 1998 and was appointed a Fellow in 2000. He stepped down as Chancellor in October 2013.[64] He was awarded an honorary LL.D. by the university in 1993, and by the University of Aberdeen in 1991 and the University of Edinburgh in 1995.
In 2007, he was awarded the David Kelbie Award by the Institute of Contemporary Scotland. He was formerly an Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Aberdeen, and is an honorary member of the Canadian Bar Association (1987) and of The Society of Legal Scholars (1991), an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (2000), and an Honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn (1989) and of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland (1995). He was also, as of 2008, the Honorary President of the Edinburgh Student Law Review.
On St Andrew's Day, 30 November 2009, Lord Hope of Craighead was appointed to the Order of the Thistle by Queen Elizabeth II. The Order of the Thistle is the highest chivalric honour in Scotland. In the UK as a whole it is second only to the Order of the Garter amongst chivalric orders. The order honours Scottish men and women who have held public office or who have contributed in some way to national life.[65] Lord Hope of Craighead represented the Order at the 2023 Coronation.[66]
| Escutcheon: | Azure on a chevron Or between three bezants a bay leaf between two quill pens Vert. |
| Crest: | A broken terrestrial sphere Proper charged with an anchor Gules surmounted by a rainbow Proper. |
| Supporters: | Two blackfaced rams Proper. |
| Motto: | Spes Non Est Fracta (My Hope Is Not Broken)[67] |
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2024-07-23b.370.2&s=le