Leonard Hubert "Lennie" Hoffmann, Baron Hoffmann (born 8 May 1934) is a senior South African–British judge. Currently, he serves as a Non-Permanent Judge of the

Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (HKCFA) 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 the Priv ...

; he formerly served as a

Lord of Appeal in Ordinary Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...

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 British company law regulates corporations formed under the Companies Act 2006. Also governed by the Insolvency Act 1986, the UK Corporate Governance Code, European Union Directive (European Union), Directives and court cases, the company is th ...

, in restricting

tort A tort is a civil wrong, other than breach of contract, 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 cri ...

liability for public authorities, human rights and

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, ...

, in particular

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

Early life

Born on 8 May 1934, Leonard Hubert Hoffmann was a member of a Jewish family in Oranjezicht, overlooking Cape Town, South Africa. His grandparents established the family there in the late 1800s, having immigrated from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. His father was a well-known solicitor who co-founded what has become Africa's largest law firm,

Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs ENS (officially Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs Inc.) is Africa's largest law firm. Headquartered in Sandton, South Africa, ENS currently has over 620 practitioners and was established over 100 years ago. The firm specialises in all commercial area ...

Education

He was educated at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

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, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

, as a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

, 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, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

, where he is an Honorary Fellow.

Legal career

He became a barrister in 1973. His first client was a law student who had been evicted from his lodgings. 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 The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

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 Wale ...

in 1964, Hoffmann became one of the most sought after and highly priced

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

s 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 ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

and

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

on 20 November 1980 and stayed in office until 1985. He was also appointed to the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division from 1985 to 1992. On 23 July 1985, he was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

upon his appointment, as is customary for High Court judges. He was subsequently appointed to be a

Lord Justice of Appeal A Lord Justice of Appeal or Lady Justice of Appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A Lord (or Lady) Just ...

on 1 October 1992 and stayed in office until 1995. In 1995, Hoffmann was appointed a

(more commonly known as a Law Lord) and thereby raised to the peerage as Baron Hoffmann, of Chedworth in the County of Gloucestershire. '' Twinsectra v Yardley'' (

trust law A trust is a legal relationship in which the owner of property, or any transferable right, gives it to another to manage and use solely for the benefit of a designated person. In the English common law, the party who entrusts the property is k ...

) 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. Hoffmann gave the leading judgment in '' Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society'', 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 Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London. Today, ...

, as Honorary Professor of Intellectual Property Law.

Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal

Hoffmann has been a Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal since 1998. In 2014 he was awarded the

Gold Bauhinia Star The Gold Bauhinia Star (, GBS) is the highest rank in Order of the Bauhinia Star, under the Order (distinction), honours system of Hong Kong, created in 1997 to replace the British honours system after the Handover of Hong Kong, transfer of sovere ...

by the

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Links with Amnesty International

Hoffmann's failure to declare his links with

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

before ruling on whether

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

was immune from prosecution led to the unprecedented setting aside of a

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

judgment. He later commented to the ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'' 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."

Personal life

Leonard and Gillian (Sterner) Hoffmann have two daughters and two grandchildren. They were married at

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

Synagogue in the late 1950s. , the Hoffmanns lived in Hempstead, London, and spent weekends in Chedworth. Hoffmann is an avid cyclist and opera-goer. He has also been involved in various charities through these interests. He has a keen interest in Israel in general, and especially in its judiciary.

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'' 001UKHL 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 House of Lords. It held that the indefinite detention of foreign prisoners in Belm ...

'' 004UKHL 56; and ''A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department'' 005UKHL 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 Denning, Baron Denning, (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999), was an English barrister 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 when he w ...

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'' 004UKHL 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'' 005UKHL 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'' 986BCLC 170 *'' Improver v Remington'' 990FSR 181 *'' Nestle v National Westminster Bank plc''

992 Year 992 ( CMXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Worldwide * Winter – A superflare from the sun causes an Aurora Borealis, with visibility as far south as Germany and Korea. Euro ...

EWCA Civ 12, 9931 WLR 1260 -

English trusts law English trust law concerns the protection of assets, usually when they are held by one party for another's benefit. Trust law, Trusts were a creation of the English law of English property law, property and English contract law, obligations, a ...

concerning the

duty of care In Tort, tort law, a duty of care is a legal Law of obligations, obligation that is imposed on an individual, requiring adherence to a standard of care, standard of Reasonable person, reasonable care to avoid careless acts that could foreseeab ...

when a trustee is making an investment; Hoffmann's decision supported on appeal *''

Bishopsgate Investment Management Ltd v Maxwell (No 2) ''Bishopsgate Investment Management Ltd v Maxwell (No 2)'' 993BCLC 814 is a UK company law case concerning a director's duty to act for proper purposes of the company. This case is an example of what would now be Companies Act 2006, section 171 ...

'' 993BCLC 814 -

concerning a director's duty to act for proper purposes of the company. *''

Re D'Jan of London Ltd ''Re D’Jan of London Ltd'' 9941 BCLC 561 is a leading English company law case concerning a Directors' duties, director's duty of care and skill, whose main precedent is now codified under Section 174 of the Companies Act 2006. The case wa ...

'' 9941 BCLC 561, 993BCC 646 *'' William Sindall plc v Cambridgeshire County Council'' 9941 WLR 1016 *'' Re Saul D Harrison & Sons plc''

995 Year 995 (Roman numerals, CMXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 17 May - Fujiwara no Michitaka (imperial regent) dies. * 3 June: Fujiwara no Michikane gains power and becomes Rege ...

1 BCLC 14, 994BCC 475 *''Biogen Inc v Medeva plc'' 997RPC
[1996
/nowiki> UKHL 18">996">[1996
/nowiki> UKHL 18*''South Australia Asset Management Corp v York Montague Ltd'' [1996] UKHL 10, 997AC 191 *''Co-operative Insurance Society Ltd v Argyll Stores'' 997UKHL 17 *'' Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society'' 997UKHL 28 *'' Banque Financiere de la Cite v Parc (Battersea) Ltd'' 998UKHL 7 *''

O'Neill v Phillips is a UK company law case on an action for unfair prejudice under s.459 Companies Act 1985 (now s.994 Companies Act 2006). It is the only case thus far in the House of Lords on the provision and it deals with the concept of members of a busines ...

999 999 or triple nine most often refers to: * 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries * 999 (number), an integer * AD 999, a year * 999 BC, a year Media Books * 999 (anthology), ''99 ...

UKHL 24,

1 WLR 1092 *'' Bruton v London & Quadrant Housing Trust''

000 Triple zero, Zero Zero Zero, 0-0-0 or variants may refer to: * 000 (emergency telephone number), the Australian emergency telephone number * 000, the size of several small List of screw drives, screw drives * 0-0-0, a Droid (Star Wars)#0-0-0, dro ...

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 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