The UK Supreme Court has announced the death of Lord Rodger of Earlsferry yesterday. “It is with great sadness that we convey the news that Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Justice of the Supreme Court, died peacefully in his sleep during the morning of Sunday 26 June, following a short period of illness.”
Lord Phillips, President of the Supreme Court, said:-“I am deeply distressed to learn of the death of Alan Rodger. For ten years he has been a mainstay of the Law Lords and of the Supreme Court. He was an outstanding jurist and a wonderful companion. His premature death is a tragic loss to the Court and to the nation.”
Lord Hope, Deputy President of the Supreme Court, said: “Lord Rodger’s premature death has deprived us all of a greatly valued colleague and a much loved friend. It is a desperately sad end to a brilliant career. His contribution to the development of the law was immense. He had so much more still to give, both as a judge and to academic life both in Scotland and at Oxford.
“Our thoughts are with his family and his many close friends, whose lives were enriched by his generous and engaging personality and who meant so much to him too. His legacy is to be found in his judgments, his lectures and his academic writings, which will live on as his memorial for generations to come.”
A tribute will be paid in Court One in The UK Supreme Court in London tomorrow (10.30am, Tuesday 28 June), and streamed online (accessible from homepage of www.supremecourt.gov.uk).
Lord Rodger became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 2001 and was one of two Scottish Justices of The Supreme Court.
Lord Rodger was educated at Kelvinside Academy. He graduated MA, LLB from Glasgow University and then did a DPhil at Oxford. He was a junior research fellow of Balliol and then a fellow of New College (1970-1972). He became a member of the Faculty of Advocates (the Scottish Bar) in 1974, Clerk of Faculty (1976–1979) and a QC in 1985.
He was Home Advocate Depute from 1986 to 1988 before becoming Solicitor General for Scotland (1989-1992) and Lord Advocate (1992-1995). He was made a Life Peer and Privy Councillor in 1992.
Lord Rodger was appointed a Court of Session judge in 1995 and, in succession to Lord Hope of Craighead, he was Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General of Scotland from 1996 to 2001. He was an Honorary Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn.
Lord Rodger’s publications, mainly on Roman and Scots law, included ‘The Courts, the Church and the Constitution’ (2008). He was a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a corresponding member of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
He became High Steward of the University of Oxford in 2008.
