Monarch Elizabeth II Profession Barrister Nationality British Name Robert Baron | Alma mater New College, Oxford Role Judge Occupation Judge | |
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Preceded by The Lord Keith of Kinkel Full Name Robert Lionel Archibald Goff Born 12 November 1926 (age 98) ( 1926-11-12 ) Succeeded by Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson, Baron Browne-Wilkinson Books The Law of Restitution, The Law of Unjust Enrichment, A Voyage Round Holdsworth Education New College, Oxford, Eton College | ||
Robert Lionel Archibald Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley, (12 November 1926 – 14 August 2016) was a British judge and law lord.
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In his obituary, The Telegraph referred to the "unbroken series of successes" in his "glittering legal career".
Early life and career
Goff was born and raised in Perthshire. From an early age he had a love of Scottish reeling, for which his mother acquainted him with the local farmers. His father, an Army Officer, planned a military career for the young Robert but that was not ultimately to be.
Educated at St Aubyn's School Rottingdean and Eton College, he left in 1944 to spend the next four years in his father's regiment, the Scots Guards, where he grew a trademark military moustache. He went up to New College, Oxford after the war, where he took a first class honours degree in Jurisprudence.
In 1951 he was called to the Bar at Inner Temple, but remained at Oxford as a tutor and fellow for Lincoln College. He bought a typewriter and began recording his wartime experiences in legal terms. It was twenty years before The Law of Restitution, a massive tome, finally appeared in print in 1966. The analysis was a focus on repairing the damage of war in Europe through the philosophical metaphor of contract law. Making and breaking deals and bargains had brought Europe into conflicts of interest, collapsing the normal juridical process of trial and testing the validity of contracts and the remedies for restoring equity. The work broke new ground on the equitable doctrine of restitution and was widely used by City lawyers, judges and barristers alike. With Gareth Jones, a Cambridge law professor, they explored the doctrine of "unjust enrichment", greatly expanding the conceptual meaning of equity in civil cases to encompass rectification of wrongs done by commercial entreprises, profoundly impacting the expansion of city institutions, for it touched on areas like insurance, pensions and fiduciary duties. It also had impacts on the criminal law of fraud.
Goff began pupillage at 5 King's Bench walk, in Sir Ashton Roskill's chambers where he concentrated mainly on civil and commercial law, which ultimately became his speciality. He took silk in 1967, the same year his chambers amalgamated with that at No. 7.
Judicial career
Goff was appointed to the High Court (Queen's Bench Division) in 1975, and received the customary knighthood. He held the office of Bencher of the Inner Temple and High Court Judge of the Queen's Bench between 1975-82. He was made a Lord Justice of Appeal and was sworn in as a Privy Councillor in 1982.
Goff was influential in the teaching of law. He was honorary professor of Legal Ethics at Birmingham University and Chairman of the Council of Legal Education. He also held many honorary degrees and fellowships. He was a Fellow of the British Academy. He served as President of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and was a patron of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal, From 1991 to 2001 he was High Steward of Oxford University.
Goff was made a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and a life peer on 6 February 1986, as Baron Goff of Chieveley, of Chieveley in the County of Berkshire. He regularly sat in the House of Lords, and was an active participant in debates. On 1 October 1996, The Lord Keith of Kinkel retired as Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and Lord Goff succeeded him. In 1999 he was awarded the Grand Cross (First Class) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribution to British awareness of German law. Lord Goff remained in the role until his own retirement.
Goff died in August 2016 at the age of 89.
Important judgments
Lord Goff gave many important judgments, including his judgments in the following cases: