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Leonard Hubert "Lennie" Hoffmann, Baron Hoffmann (born 8 May 1934) is a retired senior South African–British judge. He served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1995 to 2009. Well known for his lively decisions and willingness to break with convention, he has had an especially large impact on the interpretation of contracts, shareholder actions in
UK company law The United Kingdom company law regulates corporations formed under the Companies Act 2006. Also governed by the Insolvency Act 1986, the UK Corporate Governance Code, European Union Directives and court cases, the company is the primary lega ...
, in restricting
tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...
liability for public authorities, human rights and intellectual property law, in particular patents. Currently, he serves as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong.


Early life

Born 8 May 1934 in Cape Town, Leonard Hubert Hoffmann was the son of a well-known solicitor who co-founded what has become Africa's largest law firm, Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs.


Education

He was educated at the
University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
and then attended
The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...
, as a Rhodes Scholar, where he studied for the BCL degree and won the
Vinerian Scholarship The Vinerian Scholarship is a scholarship given to the University of Oxford student who "gives the best performance in the examination for the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law". Currently, £2,500 is given to the winner of the scholarship, with an ...
. Between 1961 and 1973, he was Stowell Civil Law Fellow at
University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...
, where he is an Honorary Fellow.


Legal career

In 1963, he published the first edition of ''The South African Law of Evidence'', a work which became the standard text and which has since been published in four editions. After being called to the Bar from
Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...
in 1964, Hoffmann became one of the most sought after and highly priced barristers of his generation and was quickly made a judge, having taken silk on 19 April 1977.


Judicial career

He was appointed to the Courts of Appeal of
Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...
and Guernsey on 20 November 1980 and stayed in office until 1985 and was appointed to the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division from 1985 to 1992. On 23 July 1985, he was knighted upon his appointment, as is customary for High Court judges. He was subsequently appointed to be a Lord Justice of Appeal on 1 October 1992 and stayed in office until 1995. In 1995, Hoffmann was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (more commonly known as a Law Lord) and thereby raised to the peerage as Baron Hoffmann, of
Chedworth Chedworth is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, southwest England, in the Cotswolds. It is known as the location of Chedworth Roman Villa, administered since 1924 by the National Trust. Chedworth Stream rises close to the village a ...
in the County of Gloucestershire. '' Twinsectra v Yardley'' (
trust law A trust is a legal relationship in which the holder of a right gives it to another person or entity who must keep and use it solely for another's benefit. In the Anglo-American common law, the party who entrusts the right is known as the " sett ...
) and ''MacNiven v Westmoreland'' (
tax law Tax law or revenue law is an area of legal study in which public or sanctioned authorities, such as federal, state and municipal governments (as in the case of the US) use a body of rules and procedures (laws) to assess and collect taxes in a ...
) are prominent examples of his judicial positions. Both cases led to differences of view between him and
Lord Millett Peter Julian Millett, Baron Millett, , (23 June 1932 – 27 May 2021) was a British barrister and judge. He was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1998 to 2004. Biography Early life The son of Denis and Adele Millett, he was educated at Har ...
. Hoffmann gave the leading judgment in ''
Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society is a frequently-cited English contract law case which laid down that a contextual approach must be taken to the interpretation of contracts. Lord Hoffmann set out five principles, so that contract should be construed according to: #what a rea ...
'', in which he set out five principles for interpreting contracts. He retired as a Law Lord on 20 April 2009 and joined the Centre for Commercial Law Studies,
Queen Mary, University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...
, as Honorary Professor of
Intellectual Property Law Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
.


Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal

Hoffmann has been a Non-Permanent Judge of the
Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (HKCFA or CFA) is the final appellate court of Hong Kong. It was established on 1 July 1997, upon the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, replacing the Judicial Committee of t ...
since 1998. In 2014 he was awarded the
Gold Bauhinia Star The Gold Bauhinia Star (, GBS) is the highest Bauhinia Star rank in the honours system of Hong Kong, created in 1997 to replace the British honours system of the Order of the British Empire after the transfer of sovereignty to People's Republic of ...
by the
Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
.


Links with Amnesty International

Hoffmann's failure to declare his links with Amnesty International before ruling on whether
Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
was immune from prosecution led to the unprecedented setting aside of a
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
judgment. He later commented to the '' Daily Telegraph'' that "the fact is I'm not biased. I am a lawyer. I do things as a judge. The fact that my wife works as a secretary for Amnesty International is, as far as I am concerned, neither here nor there."


Family

Leonard and Gillian Hoffmann have two daughters and two grandchildren.


Opinions in terrorism cases

Hoffmann was involved in three important judgments of the House of Lords concerning terrorism: '' Secretary of State for the Home Department v Rehman''
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UKHL 47; ''
A v Secretary of State for the Home Department ''A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department'/nowiki> UKHL 56] (also known as the ''Belmarsh 9'' case) is a UK human rights case heard before the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, House of Lords. It held that the indefini ...
''
004 004, 0O4, O04, OO4 may refer to: * 004, fictional British 00 Agent * 0O4, Corning Municipal Airport (California) * O04, the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation * Abdul Haq Wasiq, Guantanamo detainee 004 * Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet engine * Lauda Ai ...
UKHL 56; and ''A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department''
005 ''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...
UKHL 71. In ''Rehman'', at para 62, he wrote:
Postscript. I wrote this speech some three months before the recent events in New York and Washington. They are a reminder that in matters of national security, the cost of failure can be high. This seems to me to underline the need for the judicial arm of government to respect the decisions of ministers of the Crown on the question of whether support for terrorist activities in a foreign country constitutes a threat to national security. It is not only that the executive has access to special information and expertise in these matters. It is also that such decisions, with serious potential results for the community, require a legitimacy which can be conferred only by entrusting them to persons responsible to the community through the democratic process. If the people are to accept the consequences of such decisions, they must be made by persons whom the people have elected and whom they can remove.
It appeared that he was willing to defer to the executive in matters concerning national security in the fairly long tradition of English judges deferring to the executive in such matters, including
Lord Denning Alfred Thompson "Tom" Denning, Baron Denning (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999) was an English lawyer and judge. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1923 and became a King's Counsel in 1938. Denning became a judge in 1944 wh ...
in ''ex-parte Hosenball''. However, in 2004, Hoffmann took a robust stand (joining the majority of judges in the decision) against the executive in the Belmarsh case, ''A v. SSHD''
004 004, 0O4, O04, OO4 may refer to: * 004, fictional British 00 Agent * 0O4, Corning Municipal Airport (California) * O04, the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation * Abdul Haq Wasiq, Guantanamo detainee 004 * Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet engine * Lauda Ai ...
UKHL 56. In this case Hoffmann wrote at para 97 that:
The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these. That is the true measure of what terrorism may achieve. It is for Parliament to decide whether to give the terrorists such a victory.
In ''A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department''
005 ''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...
UKHL 71, Hoffmann said:
The use of torture is dishonourable. It corrupts and degrades the state which uses it and the legal system which accepts it.


Notable judgments

*'' Re Augustus Barnett & Son Ltd''
986 Year 986 ( CMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * August 17 – Battle of the Gates of Trajan: Emperor Basil II leads a Byz ...
BCLC 170 *'' Improver v Remington'' 990FSR 181 *'' Nestle v National Westminster Bank plc''
992 Year 992 ( CMXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Worldwide * Winter – A superflare from the sun causes an Aurora Borealis, with visibility as fa ...
EWCA Civ 12, 9931 WLR 1260 - English trusts law concerning the
duty of care In tort law, a duty of care is a legal obligation that is imposed on an individual, requiring adherence to a standard of reasonable care while performing any acts that could foreseeably harm others. It is the first element that must be establi ...
when a trustee is making an investment; Hoffmann's decision supported on appeal *'' Bishopsgate Investment Management Ltd v Maxwell (No 2)'' 993BCLC 814 -
UK company law The United Kingdom company law regulates corporations formed under the Companies Act 2006. Also governed by the Insolvency Act 1986, the UK Corporate Governance Code, European Union Directives and court cases, the company is the primary lega ...
concerning a director's duty to act for proper purposes of the company. *'' Re D'Jan of London Ltd''
994 Year 994 ( CMXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * September 15 – Battle of the Orontes: Fatimid forces, under Turkish gener ...
1 BCLC 561, 993BCC 646 *'' William Sindall plc v Cambridgeshire County Council''
994 Year 994 ( CMXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * September 15 – Battle of the Orontes: Fatimid forces, under Turkish gener ...
1 WLR 1016 *'' Re Saul D Harrison & Sons plc''
995 Year 995 ( CMXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 17 May - Fujiwara no Michitaka (imperial regent) dies. * 3 June: Fujiwara no Michikane gain ...
1 BCLC 14,
994 Year 994 ( CMXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * September 15 – Battle of the Orontes: Fatimid forces, under Turkish gener ...
BCC 475 *''Biogen Inc v Medeva plc''
997 Year 997 (Roman numerals, CMXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 1 February: Empress Teishi gives birth to Princess Shushi - she is the first ...
RPC
[1996
/nowiki>_UKHL_18.html" ;"title="996">[1996
/nowiki> UKHL 18">996">[1996
/nowiki> UKHL 18*''South Australia Asset Management Corp v York Montague Ltd'' [1996] UKHL 10,
997 Year 997 (Roman numerals, CMXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 1 February: Empress Teishi gives birth to Princess Shushi - she is the first ...
AC 191 *''
Co-operative Insurance Society Ltd v Argyll Stores ''Co-operative Insurance Society Ltd v Argyll Stores (Holdings) Ltd'' [1997UKHL 17is an English contract law case, concerning the possibility of claiming specific performance of a promise after breach of contract. Facts The Co-operative Insuranc ...
''
997 Year 997 (Roman numerals, CMXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 1 February: Empress Teishi gives birth to Princess Shushi - she is the first ...
UKHL 17 *''
Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society is a frequently-cited English contract law case which laid down that a contextual approach must be taken to the interpretation of contracts. Lord Hoffmann set out five principles, so that contract should be construed according to: #what a rea ...
''
997 Year 997 (Roman numerals, CMXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 1 February: Empress Teishi gives birth to Princess Shushi - she is the first ...
UKHL 28 *''Banque Financiere de la Cite v Parc (Battersea) Ltd'' [1998] UKHL 7 *''O'Neill v Phillips'' [1999] UKHL 24, [1999] 1 WLR 1092 *''Bruton v London & Quadrant Housing Trust'' [2000] 1 AC 406 *''Secretary of State for the Home Department v. Rehman'' [2001
UKHL 47
*''Standard Chartered Bank v Pakistan National Shipping Corp'' [2003] 1 AC 959 *''Kirin-Amgen v Hoechst Marion Roussel'
[2004
/nowiki> UKHL 46] *'' A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, A v Secretary of State for the Home Department'' [2004
UKHL 56
*''A v Secretary of State for the Home Department'' [2005
UKHL 71
*''OBG Ltd v Allan'' [2007] UKHL 21, [2008] 1 AC 1, [2007] 2 WLR 920 *''Transfield Shipping Inc v Mercator Shipping Inc or The Achilleas'' [2008] UKHL 48 *''Attorney General of Belize v Belize Telecom Ltd'' 009UKPC 10


Publications

A selection of his extra-judicial writings:
"Anthropomorphic justice: The reasonable man and his friends"
(2010) 29(2) ''The Law Teacher'' 127 *"Language and Lawyers" 018134 ''Law Quarterly Review'' 553


References


External links


Universality of Human Rights
Hoffmann's lecture, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffmann, Lennie 1934 births Living people South African Rhodes Scholars Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford Alumni of South African College Schools Fellows of The Queen's College, Oxford Law lords Crossbench life peers English Jews Hong Kong judges Justices of the Court of Final Appeal (Hong Kong) Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of Gray's Inn Amnesty International people University of Cape Town alumni Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council People from Cape Town Recipients of the Gold Bauhinia Star Knights Bachelor South African emigrants to the United Kingdom Chancery Division judges Jewish British politicians South African Jews