Richard Humphreys is an Irish judge and lawyer who has served as a Judge of the High Court since October 2015. He was previously a

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 ...

, legal academic, political adviser, and was a member of

Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council () is the local authority of the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities that succeeded the former Dublin County Council on its abolition on 1 January 1994 a ...

for the Labour Party.

Early life

Humphreys attended

St Michael's College, Dublin St Michael's College () is a voluntary Catholic boys' school, with an associated primary school, located on Ailesbury Road in Dublin 4, Ireland. Founded in 1944 by the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (The Spiritans) as a second feeder school ...

, graduating in 1984. He received BCL and LLM law degrees from

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

in 1988 and 1989 respectively. While a student at UCD, Humphreys was the auditor of the L&H society between 1986 and 1987. During his term in charge of the society, it hosted the

World Universities Debating Championship The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) is the world's largest international debating tournament and one of the largest annual international student events. WUDC is held in the British Parliamentary format (involving four teams of t ...

. He subsequently attended the

King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns () is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environments. The Benchers of King's Inns aw ...

and obtained a PhD in law from

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

Legal career

He was called to the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

in 1991 and became a senior counsel in 2009. He practised primarily in the area of public law, specifically Constitutional law, judicial review and immigration law. He twice appeared for

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

in constitutional challenges. He also appeared in media law and defamation cases. Humphreys was a lecturer at UCD and

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...

between 1990 and 1993, and also taught at the law faculties of TCD and

NUI Galway The University of Galway () is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. The university was founded in 1845 as "Queen's College, Galway". It was known as "University College, Galway" (UCG) () from 1908 to 1997 and as ...

. He was a member of the Balance in Criminal Law Review Group and the chairperson of the Statute Law Expert Advisory Group. While a government adviser, he attended talks in 1996 which contributed to the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

. He has since written two texts on the agreement,

United Ireland United Ireland (), also referred to as Irish reunification or a ''New Ireland'', is the proposition that all of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically: the sovereign state of Ireland (legally ...

and the border between

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

Political career

As a teenager, Humphreys was a member of

Young Fine Gael Young Fine Gael (YFG) is the autonomous youth wing of Fine Gael, one of Ireland’s major centre-right political parties. It offers its members scope to assist in formulation of political policy, and the day-to-day running of the senior party. ...

, before becoming a member of the Labour Party. He worked as a legal adviser to the Labour Party for two decades. He became a legal adviser to

Mervyn Taylor Mervyn Taylor (28 December 1931 – 23 September 2021) was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Equality and Law Reform from 1993 to 1994 and from 1994 to 1997. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South-We ...

at the Department of Equality and Law Reform in January 1993, holding that position until 1997. He was elected to

at the 2009 local elections as a county councillor for the

Stillorgan Stillorgan (, also and previously or ), formerly a village in its own right, is now a suburban area of Dublin in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Stillorgan is located in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, and contains many housing estates, shops and oth ...

local electoral area. He was re-elected in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, serving until his retirement from politics in May 2015. In 2010, he proposed a motion to offer to hold an event to welcome Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

Judicial career

Humphreys was appointed to the High Court in October 2015, by the

Fine Gael Fine Gael ( ; ; ) is a centre-right, liberal-conservative, Christian democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éireann. The party had a member ...

and Labour Party

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

. In an immigration case ruling in 2016, he followed a 2008 ruling of Judge

Mary Irvine Mary Irvine (born 10 December 1956) is a retired Irish judge who served as President of the High Court between 2020 and 2022, a Judge of the High Court from 2007 to 2014, and 2020 to 2022, a Judge of the Supreme Court from 2019 to 2020, and a ...

that the unborn had constitutional rights that should be considered by the Minister for Justice, and took the view that this conclusion was reinforced by Article 42A of the

Constitution of Ireland The Constitution of Ireland (, ) is the constitution, fundamental law of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It asserts the national sovereignty of the Irish people. It guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected non-executi ...

. The

Supreme Court of Ireland The Supreme Court of Ireland () is the highest judicial authority in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a court of final appeal and exercises, in conjunction with the Court of Appeal (Ireland), Court of Appeal and the High Court (Ireland), Hig ...

in 2018 reversed this reasoning but upheld the order that the Minister was obliged to consider the rights that would accrue on birth of the child. He has also heard numerous judicial review cases, including decisions of the Department of Justice and Equality and the Department of Education and Skills. In 2018, he ordered the

State Examinations Commission The State Examinations Commission () is the organisation that replaced the Examinations Branch of the Department of Education (Ireland), Department of Education in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. History The State Examinations Commission is a Sta ...

to expedite its decision on an appeal to the awarding of

Leaving Certificate A secondary school leaving qualification is a document signifying that the holder has fulfilled any secondary education requirements of their locality, often including the passage of a final qualification examination. For each leaving certificate ...

points. Humphreys was appointed to the

Law Reform Commission A law commission, law reform commission, or law revision commission is an independent body set up by a government to conduct law reform; that is, to consider the state of laws in a jurisdiction and make recommendations or proposals for legal chang ...

as a part-time commissioner for a five-year term in October 2020. The same month, the Supreme Court gave judgment on an appeal against two 2019 judgments by Humphreys in an immigration case; while upholding his "lucid, reasoned, elegant and intelligent" judgment, Justice Marie Baker criticised "quite remarkable and personally insulting comments" he had made about counsel for both sides. He is the judge in charge of the Strategic Infrastructural Development Judicial Review List of the High Court.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Humphreys, Richard Alumni of King's Inns Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of University College Dublin Auditors of the Literary and Historical Society (University College Dublin) Fine Gael politicians High Court judges (Ireland) Irish barristers Labour Party (Ireland) politicians Living people Members of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Council People educated at St Michael's College, Dublin Politicians from County Dublin Year of birth missing (living people)