Lord Bingham

Lord Bingham is Chair of Reprieve’s Board of Trustees.

Reprieve is delighted that Lord Bingham, Britain's most senior law lord, agreed to become its Chair in January 2009.

Lord Bingham was appointed to the High Court in 1980 and to the Court of Appeal in 1986.  He became Master of the Rolls in 1992, and then Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales in 1996. He was created a life peer as Baron Bingham of Cornhill in 1996, when he moved to the House of Lords. In this year, he also became the first appointed Senior Law Lord.

Before retiring in July 2008, Lord Bingham was a strong advocate for divorcing the judicial branch of the House of Lords from Parliament by setting up a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. This historic change was accomplished in the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005 and the court will come into operation in October 2009.

In 2005, Lord Bingham was appointed a Knight of the Garter, an honour in the personal gift of the Queen and one only rarely conferred on judges.

Additionally, Lord Bingham is the Chairman of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.