Sir Henry William Rawson Wade (16 January 1918 – 12 March 2004) (SN/PC/00675) (last updated 24 February 2014, in

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

format, 29 pages) was a British academic lawyer, best known for his work on the law of real property and

administrative law Administrative law is a division of law governing the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law includes executive branch rulemaking (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regul ...

. Wade was educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by royal charter, to replace the town's Saxon collegiate foundations which were disestablished in the sixteenth century, Shrewsb ...

and at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

. After a fellowship at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, he began his career as a civil servant in the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...

, before being elected to a fellowship at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

in 1946. From 1961 to 1976 he was Professor of English Law at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a 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 second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and a fellow of

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

, and from 1978 to 1982

Rouse Ball Professor of English Law The Rouse Ball Professorship of English Law is a senior professorship in English law at the University of Cambridge, established in 1927 by a bequest from the mathematician W. W. Rouse Ball. In establishing the office, Rouse Ball expresse ...

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

; from 1976 to 1988 he was Master of

. He held the degrees of MA and LLD, and the honorary degree of

LittD Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

from

. In 1985, he gave evidence for the defence at the trial of

Clive Ponting Clive Sheridan Ponting (13 April 1946 – 28 July 2020)Richard Norton-Taylor, "The Ponting Affair", Cecil Woolf, London, 1985, p. 14. was a senior British civil servant and historian. In 1984, he leaked classified documents about the sinkin ...

for an alleged breach of the

Official Secrets Act An Official Secrets Act (OSA) is legislation that provides for the protection of Classified information, state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security. However, in its unrevised form (based on the UK Official Secret ...

for revealing details of the conduct of the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

, at which Ponting was acquitted. He believed and first proposed that the "''

Parliament Acts The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 are two Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which form part of the constitution of the United Kingdom. Section 2(2) of the Parliament Act 1949 provides that the two Acts are to be construed as one. ...

'' are delegated, not primary, legislation""The basis of legal sovereignty", Cambridge Law Journal, 1955, p 193 Wade was an oarsman, mountaineer and a keen gardener in latter years.

References

External links

Obituary
by Dr Christopher Forsyth, of the Cambridge Faculty of Law

in the ''

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...

'' newspaper 1918 births 2004 deaths Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge English legal scholars Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of St John's College, Oxford Harvard Fellows Knights Bachelor Masters of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge People educated at Shrewsbury School Scholars of administrative law Legal scholars of the University of Oxford Rouse Ball Professors of English Law Lawyers awarded knighthoods {{UK-law-bio-stub