Paul Girvan (judge)

Sir Frederick Paul Girvan PC (born 20 October 1948) is a retired Northern Irish judge. He was educated at Larne Grammar School, Belfast Royal Academy, Clare College, Cambridge (BA) and Queen's University, Belfast.^[1]

He was knighted on his appointment as a Justice of the High Court of Northern Ireland, 1995. Sworn of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 25 January 2007^[2] on his appointment as a Lord Justice of Appeal of the Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland.

In July 2006 he delivered a judgment in Downes (Re), Application for Judicial Review,^[3] criticising the appointment of Mrs Bertha McDougall as Interim Victims Commissioner. The judgment was criticised by the former Secretary for State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, in his memoir Outside In. In March 2012 the Attorney-General of Northern Ireland began proceedings against Hain and the publishers alleging contempt of court, alleging contempt of court, although these were subsequently dropped.

He retired in 2015.

Background

Called to the Bar: NI, 1971
Junior Crown Counsel, NI, 1979–1982
Queen's Counsel (NI), 1982
Chancellor, Diocese of Armagh (Church of Ireland), 1999–present
Chairman: Council of Law Reporting for NI, 1994–2001
Law Reform Advisory Committee for NI, 1997–2004 (Member since 1994)
Hon. Bencher, Gray's Inn, 1999.

References

^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 1555. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
^ Privy Council Appointment of Sir Frederick Garvin Archived 11 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
^ [2006] NIQB 77; http://www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NIHC/QB/2006/77.html

[burke-1] Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 1555. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.

[2] Privy Council Appointment of Sir Frederick Garvin Archived 11 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine

[3] [2006] NIQB 77; http://www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NIHC/QB/2006/77.html

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