UK Supreme Court..and Afterwards 2009-2015: Lord Hope's Diaries Volume V

Lord Hope’s Diaries is the title of a series of books which covers the whole of Lord Hope’s career at the Scottish Bar and as a Judge in Edinburgh and then in London. It provides a unique and fascinating insight into a way of life in the law that has now passed into history.

This was a time when the legal profession in all its aspects was much less closely regulated than it is now. As a result Lord Hope’s career unfolded in a way that could not be repeated today, as he progressed direct from the Bar to the most senior position in the Scottish judiciary as Lord President, from there to the House of Lords as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and then to the newly established UK Supreme Court as its first Deputy President.

Lord Hope became Deputy President of the Supreme Court when that court was established in October 2009. He continued to hold that office until he retired, on 26 June 2013, having sat as an appellate judge for 24 years.

For 17 of those years Lord Hope was a member of the UK’s highest court. During that period he gave judgment in a number of important appeals raising issues of arbitration law, for example the Fiona Trust case. He is the author of the title on arbitration law in the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia of Scots law.