Lord Kilmuir

This short book examines the career and achievements of Lord Kilmuir (David Maxwell Fyfe), a British politician and former Lord Chancellor who is mainly remembered for some poor and unpopular decisions but who nevertheless made a considerable mark on twentieth-century legal development. After the Second World War, Kilmuir not only excelled as a fellow prosecutor with Justice Robert Jackson at Nuremberg but also played a significant role in the effort to restore European unity, particularly through his involvement in the drafting of the European Convention on Human Rights. Drawing on archival and other primary sources, this book considers Kilmuir's initiatives both at home and in Europe, and concludes by marking out his achievements as a pro-European Conservative who not only favoured the right of individual petition to a supranational, Convention-enforcing court but who also favoured Parliament legislating to replicate Convention norms in domestic law.

I. Introduction
II. Early Career
III. Conservatism
IV. Domestic Politics
V. Suez
VI. Judicial Independence
VII. Kilmuir as Judge
VIII. End of an Era
IX. Europe
X. Concluding Reflections

“This short book goes a long way to explaining the Tory commitment to the ECHR at its inception. The case for our continued commitment to the European Court of Human Rights remains compelling. Duxbury's triumph is to explain why Kilmuir would agree.” –  Sara Ibrahim, Progress - Labour's progressives

“This text is enlivened with acute asides on matters from the "research assessment exercise" for British universities to the "non-political" judge.” –  Hon. Sir Ross Cranston, Law Quarterly Review

“The book contain precious insight on the obligation of judges to visibly draw away from earlier political involvement upon appointment, on the dangers of extra-judicial writings and on how best to frame our judgements when addressing controversial subjects.” –  Neil Duxbury, Provincial Judge Journal