Talk:Michael Kerr (judge)

Disambig page needed for Michael Kerr(s)

Looks like a disambig page should be created for variants of this name. Three references in this article and its history, as well as at least one other Wiki article. I moved this article and created the page. WBardwin 08:06, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Statement on M. K. as "first foregn-born High Court Judge"

I've changed the statement "His career eventually led him to the High Court, where he served as the first jurist not born in England since the 12th century." Two reasons.

First, in UK usage, the term 'jurist' means an academic or theoretical lawyer. It is not used of practitioners or judges, however eminent.

Second, England ≠ UK. It is factually very unlikely indeed that no senior judge had been born outside England since the C12. At least one judge in what was then the House of Lords always came from the Scottish judiciary. Historically nobody has ever distinguished which judges happen to have been born in Wales, or for that matter Ireland or Scotland, or to parents working in the Empire or abroad if they were called to the London bar - which covers Wales anyway. What the Telegraph obituary is saying is that Michael Kerr believed he was the first one who had been born a foreigner, which is something quite different. --Browne-Windsor (talk) 10:19, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Obviously that statement had been a translation from the German W.P. article, probably written also by a German. In Germany it is common to confuse "UK" with "England", and also in German "Jurist" is used for all who have obtained a law degree and work in that field in ANY fundction, practical or theoretical. So for anyone who has not lived in Britain or attended any University course or lecture on Rechtsvergleichung (literally law comparison, commonly called comparative law in Britain, which however is a less prcise description) it is not surprising that they are ignorant of such subtleties as you mention.

Ragards, -- 147.142.186.54 (talk) 17:54, 3 January 2012 (UTC)