William John Kenneth Diplock, Baron Diplock, PC (8 December 1907 – 14 October 1985) was a British barrister and judge who served as a lord of appeal in ordinary between 1968 and until his death in 1985. Appointed to the English High Court in 1956 and the Court of Appeal five years later, Diplock made important contributions to the development of constitutional and public law as well as many other legal fields. A frequent choice for governmental inquiries, he is also remembered for proposing the creation of the eponymous juryless Diplock courts. Of him, Lord Rawlinson of Ewell wrote that "to his generation Diplock was the quintessential man of the law".
Early life and legal career
Kenneth Diplock was born in South Croydon, the son of solicitor William John Hubert Diplock and his wife Christine Joan Brooke. He was educated at Whitgift School in Croydon and University College, Oxford, where he read chemistry and graduated with a second-class degree in 1929.[1] He was Secretary of the Oxford Union for a term in 1929. He later become an honorary fellow of University College in 1958.[2]
Returning to the bar in 1945, Diplock was made a King's Counsel in 1948, at the early age of 41. He acquired a large practice in commercial work and in advisory work for Commonwealth governments. He was Recorder of Oxford from 1951 to 1956.
He became the senior Law Lord upon the retirement of Lord Wilberforce in 1982. He resigned his seniority in October 1984 but remained a Law Lord until his death the following year.
As Lord Diplock, he chaired a commission set up in 1972 to consider legal measures against terrorism in Northern Ireland, which led to the establishment of the juryless Diplock courts with which his name is now often associated.
In September 1985, Lord Diplock sat as a judge for the last time, in a special sitting of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council during the Long Vacation for an urgent civil case from Trinidad and Tobago. Severely ill from emphysema, Diplock came to court from the hospital in a wheelchair and with an oxygen cylinder.
At the time of his death, Lord Diplock was the longest serving law lord as well as the last serving superior judge to not be covered the mandatory retirement age of 75 introduced by the Judicial Pensions Act 1959.[3]
Personal life
He married Margaret Sarah Atcheson in 1938; they had no children.[5][1]
Contributions to legal thought
He made many contributions to legal thought and pushed the law in new and unique directions, not least UK courts without juries ('Diplock courts)'.[6] His rulings, especially those on administrative law, are often considered as authoritative not only in England but across the Commonwealth and even in the United States, where he has been cited by the Supreme Court.[7][8]
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Escutcheon
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Supporters
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^ abcDickson, Brice (1989). "The Contribution of Lord Diplock to the General Law of Contract". Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. 9 (4): 441. doi:10.1093/ojls/9.4.441.
^Moschi v. Lep AirServices Ltd. [1973] A.C. 331 per Lord Diplock, confirmed in Photo Production Ltd. v Securior Transport Ltd. [1980] UKHL 2 at [5] per Lord Wilberforce
