Sir Christopher Dudley Roger Rose (born 10 February 1937) is a former judge of the

Court of Appeal of England and Wales The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and second in the legal system of England and Wales only to ...

and a member of the

Privy Council of the United Kingdom The Privy Council, formally His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a privy council, formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its members, known as privy counsellors, are mainly senior politicians who are curre ...

Education

Christopher Rose was educated at Morecambe Grammar School (1947–1950), a former state grammar school, in the seaside town of

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

, in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, and

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, private, boarding and day school in the public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school which was th ...

(1950–1954), a boarding

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

for boys, in the village of

Repton Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 census was 2,707, increasing to 2 ...

, in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, followed by the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

(1954–1957), from which he obtained a degree in Law and

Wadham College Wadham College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, a ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, from which he graduated as Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL), in 1959. He has acted as an Honorary Fellow at Wadham College since 1993.

Life and career

Rose became

Vice-President of the Criminal Division The Vice-President of the Criminal Division is a Lord Justice of Appeal who assists the Lord Chief Justice, the President of the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The post was created by Lord Bingham of Cornhill during ...

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 ...

in 1997. An early case he dealt with in that capacity was ''R v Lindsay and Kelly'' (1998), where preserved

corpse A cadaver, often known as a corpse, is a dead human body. Cadavers are used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a li ...

s belonging to the

Royal College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations ...

had been stolen. Rose ruled that the common law principle that "there is no property in a corpse" did not apply once skilled work had been invested in the preservation of the corpses, and therefore the defendants could be found guilty of theft, contrary to the

Theft Act 1968 The Theft Act 1968 (c. 60) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates a number of offences against property in England and Wales. On 15 January 2007 the Fraud Act 2006 came into force, redefining most of the offences of d ...

. In 2002 he was Treasurer of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

. On 24 April 2006 he retired, and soon afterwards he was appointed Chief Surveillance Commissioner, a post which he held until 2015. During his time on the Court of Appeal he was an outspoken critic of recent legislation, in particular the

Criminal Justice Act 2003 The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a wide-ranging measure introduced to modernise many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland a ...

and the

Sexual Offences Act 2003 The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (c. 42) is an Act of the Parliament (for England and Wales). It partly replaced the Sexual Offences Act 1956 with more specific and explicit wording. It also created several new offences such as non-consensual voyeu ...

, which he criticised as being poorly drafted, saying: "If a history of criminal legislation ever comes to be written it is unlikely that 2003 will be identified as a year of exemplary skill in the annals of Parliamentary drafting." In 2009 he said that the

Civil Nuclear Constabulary The Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Heddlu Sifil Niwclear'') is a Special police#United Kingdom, special police force responsible for providing law enforcement agency, law enforcement and security at any relevant nuclea ...

's "approach to covert activity" was "conspicuously professional". He found that the system for storing the intelligence gained from informers was "working well" and that "senior officers regard covert surveillance as a long-term requirement".

References

20th-century English judges Lord justices of appeal 1937 births Living people Alumni of the University of Leeds Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Knights Bachelor Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at Repton School 21st-century English judges {{UK-law-bio-stub