The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers is a socialist and legal campaigning organisation in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1930 to provide legal support to the then Labour government. The Society was named after Viscount Haldane, a Liberal and subsequently Labour Party politician, who had been Lord Chancellor in H. H. Asquith's government from 1912 to 1915 and subsequently in 1924 during the first ever Labour administration.[1]
Sir Stafford Cripps, Clement Attlee and John Platts-Mills were members as was the current leader of the British Labour Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Keir Starmer. Sir Keir belonged to the group from the 1980s and served as the group's secretary before leaving the organisation in 2008 upon his appointment as Director of Public Prosecutions.[2] [3]
It is now politically independent, unlike the Society of Labour Lawyers, which is affiliated to the Labour Party, and was formed after the society split in 1949 over the question of membership for members of the Communist Party.[4]
Its current chair is Declan Owens and its President is Michael Mansfield.[5]
On the international level it is a member of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and European Democratic Lawyers.
Some of its records are held by The National Archives (United Kingdom).[6]