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John Francis Donaldson, Baron Donaldson of Lymington, PC (6 October 1920 – 31 August 2005) was a British barrister and judge who served as Master of the Rolls for ten years, from 1982 to 1992. He was the first (and only) President of the short-lived National Industrial Relations Court from 1971 to 1974.
John Francis Donaldson was born in Marylebone, London, on 6 October 1920, to Malcolm (1884–1973) and Evelyn (née Gilroy) Donaldson.[1] His father was a Harley Street-based gynaecologist.[1]
Donaldson attended first Charterhouse and then Trinity College, Cambridge. He served as chairman of the Federation of University Conservative and Unionist Associations, and harboured ambitions of representing the Conservative Party as a Member of Parliament. He was an Independent Ratepayers Councillor for the County Borough of Croydon from 1949 to 1953.[2]
After graduating with a lower second class degree in 1941, he joined the war effort as a commissioned officer in the Royal Signals.[1] He then served with the Guards Armoured Divisional Signals, both domestically and in North-West Europe, until the end of the war in 1945. He served in the military government of Schleswig-Holstein, and was demobbed as a lieutenant-colonel aged 25.[2]
He married Dorothy Mary Warwick (later known as Dame Mary Donaldson), in 1945, having met her at Middlesex Hospital where she was working as a nurse. She later became the first woman to be a Member of the City of LondonCourt of Common Council, the first female Alderman, the first female Sheriff and, finally, in 1983, the first female Lord Mayor of London. Together, they had two daughters and a son; his wife predeceased him in October 2003.[3]
Donaldson was called to the Bar in 1946 as a Harmsworth Scholar at the Middle Temple.[1] He joined the chambers of Sir Henry Willink, QC at 3 Essex Court and built a successful tort and commercial practice. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1961, and became a High Court judge when he was appointed to the Queen's Bench Division and knighted in 1966 at the age of 45.[1] He remained the youngest High Court judge for a number of years.
He became the first (and last) President of the National Industrial Relations Court (NIRC, also known as the Industrial Relations Tribunal) from its formation by Ted Heath's Conservative government in 1971 under the Industrial Relations Act 1971 until it was abolished in 1974. The trades unions, pointing to his Tory inclinations in his youth, nicknamed him "Black Jack", and 181 Members of Parliament (MPs) signed a House of Commons motion calling for his dismissal.
Two months after Margaret Thatcher was elected in 1979, he became a Lord Justice of Appeal and was sworn of the Privy Council.[1] He replaced Lord Denning as Master of the Rolls in 1982, becoming the presiding officer of the civil division of the Court of Appeal, where he pushed forward modernisation efforts, including the introduction of skeleton arguments in civil appeals, judgments being "handed down" rather than read, and enhanced case management.[1]
Donaldson decided in O'Kelly v. Trusthouse Forte plc [1983] ICR 728, Donaldson's early reforms would later be overtaken by the Civil Procedure Rules introduced by a later Master of the Rolls, Lord Woolf. On 15 February 1988 he was elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer as Baron Donaldson of Lymington, of Lymington in the County of Hampshire.[4]
ドナルドソンは、さまざまな役職で、1970年代以降、多くの注目度の高い事件に関わってきた。1975年のギルフォード・フォーと1976年のマグワイア・セブンの裁判を主宰し、後にジョン・メイ卿による冤罪調査の中間報告書で批判された。[ 1 ]マグワイア一家が受けた不当な扱いに関するジョン・メイ卿の調査では、当時のドナルドソン判事は、裁判の最終日に突然現れた新たな証拠によって検察側の主張の根拠全体が崩れたことを理解していなかったと述べられている。また、彼は陪審員に不適格な証拠を提示することを許したとも報告書は付け加えている。[ 5 ]裁判では、彼は最終弁論で、当時死刑が科せられていなかった殺人罪ではなく、当時まだ死刑が科せられていた大逆罪で起訴されていればよかったと発言し、悪名高くなった。 [ 6 ]これらの発言は、同時代のもう一人の著名な裁判官であるナイジェル・ブリッジ卿の言葉と不気味なほど似ていた。ブリッジ卿は、同様のIRA関連の冤罪事件であるバーミンガム・シックス裁判で、殺人犯を絞首刑にできたらいいのに、とコメントしていた。
ドナルドソン判事は、政府の方針に反して、1988年にピーター・ライトの回顧録『スパイキャッチャー』の新聞掲載を阻止することを拒否した。また、1991年には、当時の内務大臣ケネス・ベイカーが、裁判所の命令に反して係争中の事件中に男性をザイールに強制送還した件で、法廷侮辱罪に問われる判決を下した。
1992年に判事を退任した後、彼は石油タンカーの座礁とそれに続く原油流出を伴う2つの海難事故に関する報告書を作成した。1つは1993年1月にシェトランド諸島沖でMV Braerが座礁し、8万5000トンの石油が流出した事故、もう1つは1996年2月にミルフォード・ヘイブンの入り口でSea Empressが座礁し、ペンブルックシャー海岸沖で7万トン以上の石油が流出した事故である。[ 1 ]
2000年から2001年の議会会期中、彼は貴族院に議員提出法案（議会法（改正）法案）を提出した。この法案は、1949年議会法の正当性を確認する効果があり、同法の使用が有効かどうかについて法学者が提起した懸念に対処するものであった。[ 7 ]この法案は可決されず、ドナルドソンは、1911年および1949年の議会法の規定に基づいて可決された2004年狩猟法を覆すためのカントリーサイド・アライアンスの法的措置を支持した。