Ross Cranston
| The Honourable Sir Ross Cranston |
|
|---|---|
| Solicitor General for England and Wales | |
| In office 28 July 1998 – 11 June 2001 |
|
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Lord Falconer |
| Succeeded by | Harriet Harman |
| Member of Parliament for Dudley North |
|
| In office 1 May 1997 – 5 May 2005 |
|
| Preceded by | Constituency Established |
| Succeeded by | Ian Austin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 23 July 1948 Brisbane, Australia |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | University of Queensland, Harvard Law School |
Sir Ross Frederick Cranston (born 23 July 1948 in Brisbane, Australia), styled The Hon. Mr Justice Cranston, is a High Court judge, formerly an academic lawyer and Labour Party politician, in the United Kingdom.
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[edit] Early life
He attended Wavell State High School in Brisbane, Queensland. He was later a student at the University of Queensland where he was awarded a BA in 1969 and an LLB in 1970. From the Harvard Law School, he gained an LLM in 1973. From Oxford University, he gained a DPhil in 1976 and much later a DCL in 1998. He became a barrister at Gray's Inn in 1976.
Cranston was a professor at the LSE from 1992-7 and the holder of the Cassell Chair in Commercial Law from 1993 to 1997. Before that he held academic posts in the UK and Australia and the Sir John Lubbock chair in Banking Law at QMW, being a professor of Law at Queen Mary and Westfield College from 1986-91.
[edit] Parliamentary career
He contested Richmond (Yorks) in 1992. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Dudley North at the 1997 general election with more than half of the votes[1], and served as Solicitor General from 1998 to 2001, when he returned to the back benches. After speculation amongst colleagues, he announced in 2005 that he would not stand for Parliament again in the 2005 election. He was succeeded by Ian Austin.
[edit] Law career
He was the Centennial Professor of Law at the LSE from 2005 to 2007.[2]
He was appointed as a High Court judge in October 2007, assigned to the Queen's Bench Division.[3]
On 14 December 2007, sitting in the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, Cranston (together with Mr Justice Cooke) heard an appeal against sentence by a woman who had pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving, and other matters. Having stolen goods from a Tesco store she had driven her car straight at a security guard, who jumped onto the bonnet to avoid being hit. The appellant had screamed at him to get off, saying she would otherwise kill him. He eventually jumped off. A police car, its lights blazing and sirens switched on, pursued the appellant out of Leamington as she failed to stop. She was ultimately stopped by another police car blocking a slip-road. The sentencing judge had concluded that her actions were "deliberate, sustained and highly dangerous".
Cranston described this conduct as "a bad case of dangerous driving but not the worst", and reduced the judge's sentence of 15 months imprisonment to one of 9 months.[4]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Dudley North 1997–2005 |
Succeeded by Ian Austin |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by Lord Falconer of Thoroton |
Solicitor General for England and Wales 1998–2001 |
Succeeded by Harriet Harman |
- 1948 births
- People from Brisbane
- Living people
- Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies
- Labour Party (UK) MPs
- UK MPs 1997–2001
- UK MPs 2001–2005
- Solicitors General for England and Wales
- Knights Bachelor
- University of Queensland alumni
- Harvard Law School alumni
- Queen's Bench Division judges
- Members of Gray's Inn
