Kenneth Diplock, Baron Diplock


William John Kenneth Diplock, Baron Diplock, PC was a British judge and successively a Justice of the High Court in England and Wales and a Lord Justice of Appeal before being created a Law Lord.

Early life

Born the son of an Irish solicitor, he attended Whitgift School in Croydon,Surreyand University College, Oxford, where he read chemistry and was later to become an Honorary Fellow. His father was Herbert Diplock and his mother was Christine Brooke.

Career

Diplock was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1932 and made a King's Counsel in 1948. In 1956, he was appointed successively to the High Court.and the Court of Appeal.
He became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary on 30 September 1968 and was elevated as a life peer with the title Baron Diplock, of Wansford in the County of Huntingdon and Peterborough to the House of Lords.
As Lord Diplock, he chaired a commission set up in 1972 to consider legal measures against terrorism in Northern Ireland, which led to the establishment of the juryless Diplock courts with which his name is now associated.
At the time of his death, Lord Diplock was the longest serving Law Lord.

Contributions to legal thought

He made many contributions to legal thought and pushed the law in new and unique directions, not least UK courts without juries '.
The current typology of grounds for judicial review is owing to Lord Diplock.