Leslie George Scarman, Baron Scarman, OBE, PC (29 July 1911 – 8 December 2004) was an English judge and barrister who served as a Law Lord until his retirement in 1986. He was described as an "outstanding judicial figure, entrusted with the most high-profile inquiries and marked by his integrity".[1]
He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1936. He remained briefless until World War II, which he spent in the Royal Air Force as a staff officer in England, North Africa, and then continental Europe. He was present with Arthur Tedder when Alfred Jodl surrendered at Reims. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1944. He returned to law in 1945, practising from chambers at 2, Crown Office Row, known since the 1970s as Fountain Court Chambers, and in the late 1940s and early 1950s he started to build the chambers' reputation for commercial litigation, together with Alan Orr and Melford Stevenson, supported by a notable clerk, Cyril Batchelor.[2] He became a Queen's Counsel in 1957.
He was appointed head of the Law Commission from 1965 to 1973, during which time 27 commission-inspired statutes were made law. As a judge, Scarman's career had some controversial decisions. Although widely regarded as a liberal, he upheld the blasphemy conviction of Gay News (1979), punctured the GLC's Fares Fair low-cost public transport policy (1981) and supported the banning of trade unions at GCHQ (1985).
After entering the House of Lords the more liberal aspects of his character dominated: he was chancellor of the University of Warwick and president of the British Institute of Human Rights, and worked on behalf of the Prince's Trust, the Birmingham Six and Charter 88. Scarman was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1983.[6] In 1991 he set up the Scarman Trust aimed at helping young people from deprived communities.[7]
Personal life and death
He married Ruth Wright in 1947, with whom he had one son. He died in 2004 at his home in Westgate-on-Sea.[8]
