Robert Haughton is an Irish judge and lawyer who has served as a Judge of the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

since November 2019. He previously served as a Judge of the High Court from 2014 to 2019. He has also additionally served as the Chair of the

Constituency Commission The Constituency Commission () is an independent commission in Ireland which had advised on redrawing of constituency boundaries of Dáil constituencies for the election of members to Dáil Éireann (the house of representatives of the Oireacht ...

Early life

Haughton was educated at

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 ...

and 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 ...

. 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 1979 and became a senior counsel in 2004. He was the chair of Bloomfield Hospital between 2005 and 2012.

Judicial career

High Court

Haughton became a High Court judge in October 2014. In July 2019, he noted that no woman had been appointed an

examiner Examiner or The Examiner may refer to: Occupations * Bank examiner, a kind of auditor * Examiner (Roman Catholicism), a type of office in the Roman Catholic Church * Examinership, a concept in Irish law * Medical examiner * Patent examiner * ...

since the process was established in Ireland. The following day Sarah-Jane O’Keeffe became the first female examiner in the State.

Constituency Commission

He was appointed by the

Chief Justice of Ireland The chief justice of Ireland () is the president of the Supreme Court of Ireland. The chief justice is the highest judicial office and the most senior judge in the Republic of Ireland. The role includes several constitutional and administrativ ...

to chair the

in July 2016 to review the boundaries of

Dáil constituencies There are 43 multi-member electoral districts, known as Dáil constituencies, to elect 174 Teachta Dála, TDs to Dáil Éireann, the house of representatives of the Oireachtas, Republic of Ireland, Ireland's parliament, on the system of propor ...

and Irish

European Parliament constituencies Member of the European Parliament, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are Elections in the European Union, elected by the population of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union (EU). The European Elect ...

. The committee increased the number of

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( ; ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish language, Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The official Engli ...

from 158 and 160 and left the boundaries for European elections unchanged. He was appointed to review the European Parliament constituencies again in 2018 following the increase in seats allocated to Ireland following

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

. The committee increased by one the numbers of seats in Ireland South and

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Court of Appeal

He was one of seven appointments to the

in November 2019. This followed a change in the law in order to increase the number of judges to sit on the Court of Appeal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haughton, Robert Living people Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Judges of the Court of Appeal (Ireland) High Court judges (Ireland) 21st-century Irish judges Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of King's Inns 20th-century Irish lawyers Irish Senior Counsel