Barrie Michael Lace Stephen, known as Michael Stephen (born 25 September 1942), was a British

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Member of Parliament (MP).

Early life

Stephen was

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 ...

by the

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in 1966. In the same year he was commissioned into The Life Guards and served in the Far East, London,

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, and Northern Ireland until 1970. In that year he was awarded a

Harkness Fellowship The Harkness Fellowship (previously known as the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship) is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several co ...

to read International Law in the United States, and earned a Master's degree from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. He was a postgraduate student at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

from 1971 to 1972, where he wrote "Natural Justice at the United Nations" 67 Am. J. Int. Law 479. He was Assistant Legal Adviser to the UK delegation to the UN for the 26th General Assembly. On returning to England, he practised at the Bar in London, specialising in commercial law. In 1989, he married Virginia Mary de Trense. They live in Chelsea, and he is Vice-chairman of The Chelsea Society. Whilst in Parliament he served on the Environment Select Committee, and after leaving Parliament he joined the Board of Symphony Environmental Technologies Plc.

Parliamentary career

Stephen contested the Labour stronghold of

Doncaster North Doncaster North is a Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituency in South Yorkshire that was created in 1983. The seat has been represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliamen ...

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

. He was elected MP for Shoreham in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and served until 1997, when his seat was abolished by boundary changes. He did not seek re-election at the 1997 general election. He is the author of the Bail (Amendment) Act 1993 which authorised appeals against grants of bail by magistrates, and s.36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 which authorised appeals against over-lenient sentences.

References

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons'', Times Newspapers Limited, 1992

External links

* 1942 births Living people Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Bow Group UK MPs 1992–1997 English barristers British Life Guards officers Stanford Law School alumni {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1940s-stub