At 73, he’s due to retire next year and doesn’t give as many speeches as some of his colleagues. When he does, he’s more likely to cite the opinions of other judges than give his own. Speaking in 2010, he said it was the Supreme Court’s job to interpret laws, not make them. On the subject of European courts, he said in 2007: “We all have much to learn from each other and much to contribute.”
During the Brexit trial: He weighed on an argument over the pronunciation of a now-famous piece of case law relating to the British government’s seizure of the De Keyser hotel a century ago. “Down here we think it is De Kay-zer,” he said.
Decision: Parliament must vote
What else? A Who’s Who guide published in 1985 lists golf and tennis among his hobbies. He still plays both when he gets time.
The Historian
Lord Jonathan Sumption, 67, stands out, not least because his hair, an altitudinous swoop of grey in the style of a mad scientist. Forty years ago he quit a history fellowship at the University of Oxford to study law because he “wanted to be able to pay my grocery bills,” but still writes history books in his spare time. Unusually, he was a practicing barrister when he was appointed to the Supreme Court, with almost no experience as a sitting judge.
He’s been outspoken about European laws, and about judges interfering in politics, key issues in the Brexit case. In a 2011 lecture, he said he was “uncomfortable” about the idea of courts “correcting” electoral decisions. Politicians answer to the public in a way judges don’t, he said. Law “is a poor instrument for achieving accommodation between the opposing interests and sentiments of the population.” He also said it was “problematic” for judges to rule using European human rights laws that didn’t reflect the proper role of the U.K. parliament and government ministers.
During the Brexit trial: Wore a succession of gaudy ties, which generated their own enthusiastic media coverage. He gave the government’s lawyer James Eadie a rough time. “You seem to have given two diametrically opposed answers in the last five minutes to the same question,” Sumption told Eadie. “We will obviously have to work out which answer we accept.”
Decision: Parliament must vote
What else? His second home is a French chateau.