Anthony Hooper (judge)


Sir Anthony Hooper, PC is a British judge, former professor of law, and a member of Matrix Chambers. He joined Matrix Chambers in 2013 after his retirement from the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. In 2013 he was appointed inaugural Judicial Fellow of the Judicial Institute of University College, London, where he is an Honorary Professor. He is an Honorary Fellow at Trinity hall, Cambridge.
A former academic, Hooper was General Editor of Blackstone’s Criminal Practice, Deputy Chair of the Criminal Procedure Rule Committee, President of the British Academy of Forensic Sciences and Chairman of the Expert Witness Institute. Whilst at the Bar, he chaired the Bar Council’s Race Relations Committee and was heavily involved in the production and implementation of the first Bar Equality Code.

Early life and career

Hooper was educated at Sherborne School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was called to the Bar in 1965, elected a bencher in 2003, and served as Chairman of the Inns of Court School of Law. He was also admitted to the Bar in British Columbia and was a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1987 and served as a Recorder from 1976 until his appointment to High Court on 14 February 1995. He received the customary knighthood and was assigned to the Queen's Bench Division and served as Presiding Judge on the South East Circuit from 1997 to 2000. On 24 March 2004, Hooper became a Lord Justice of Appeal, and was appointed to the Privy Council on 4 May of that year. Hooper reached the mandatory retirement age on 16 September 2012.