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Geoffrey Vos

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Sir Geoffrey Vos
Sir Geoffrey Vos 2022.png
Vos in 2022
Master of the Rolls
Assumed office
11 January 2021
Monarchs
Preceded byThe Lord Etherton
Chancellor of the High Court
In office
24 October 2016 – 11 January 2021
Preceded bySir Terence Etherton
Succeeded bySir Julian Flaux
Lord Justice of Appeal
In office
1 October 2013 – 23 October 2016
Personal details
Born (1955-04-22) 22 April 1955 (age 67)
Alma materGonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Sir Geoffrey Charles Vos (born 22 April 1955) is a judge in England and Wales. Since January 2021, he has held the position of Master of the Rolls, and the head of civil justice in the court system of England and Wales.[1]

Early life

Sir Geoffrey was born on 22 April 1955 to Bernard Vos and Pamela Celeste Rose.[2]

He was educated at University College School, London and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.[2]

Career

Sir Geoffrey was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1977, and practised in commercial and chancery litigation, both domestically and internationally. He took silk in 1993 and served as chair of the Chancery Bar Association from 1999 to 2001 and as chair of the Bar Council in 2007.

Judge

Sir Geoffrey began his judicial career with appointment as a deputy High Court Judge in 1999. Having sat in the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey between 2005 and 2009, and in the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands between 2008 and 2009, he was appointed as a High Court Judge in October 2009.[3]

He sat as a Deputy High Court Judge from 1999 until 2009 and was appointed as a Justice of the High Court, assigned to the Chancery Division, in October 2009. He was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2013. He was President of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary between 2014 and June 2016. He became Chancellor of the High Court on 24 October 2016.

Master of the Rolls

Sir Geoffrey was appointed the Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice in England and Wales on 11 January 2021, succeeding Sir Terence Etherton.[4] In addition to being President of the Court of Appeal’s Civil Division, the Master of the Rolls is chair of both the Civil Justice Council and the Civil Procedure Rule Committee. He is chair of the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives and of the Forum on Historical Manuscripts and Academic Research.[5] He is a member of the LawtechUK Panel and chair of its UK Jurisdiction Taskforce.[6]

In March 2021, Sir Geoffrey disclosed that the Civil Justice Council was "looking at the extent to which litigants should be forced to mediate and if so, in what circumstances". He admitted the idea is "highly controversial".[7]

In April 2021, Sir Geoffrey called for a greater use of digital technology to accelerate the dispute resolution process.[8] In May 2021, he outlined his vision for digital justice reform in more detail, and the need to reform the overall system, rather than focusing only on the judicial decision-making process. Emphasising the need to focus on the whole picture, he said: "We should not allow the tail, however waggy, to wag the huge dispute resolution dog".[9]

Sir Geoffrey was chairman of the Social Mobility Foundation from 2008 to 2011. He is Treasurer of Lincoln’s Inn for 2023, was made an honorary bencher of the King’s Inn, Dublin in 2021, and is an honorary fellow of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. He was awarded an LLD (hons) by the University of Hull in January 2023.

Sir Geoffrey is a member of the Council of the European Law Institute and of the Steering Group of the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts.

Discover more about Career related topics

Inner Temple

Inner Temple

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, a person must belong to one of these Inns. It is located in the wider Temple area, near the Royal Courts of Justice, and within the City of London. As a liberty, it functions largely as an independent local government authority.

General Council of the Bar

General Council of the Bar

The General Council of the Bar, commonly known as the Bar Council, is the representative body for barristers in England and Wales. Established in 1894, the Bar Council is the 'approved regulator' of barristers, but discharges its regulatory function to the independent Bar Standards Board. As the lead representative body for barristers in England and Wales, the Bar Council’s work is devoted to ensuring the Bar’s voice is heard, efficiently and effectively, and with the interests of the Bar as its focus.

Jersey

Jersey

Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an island country and self-governing British Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the largest of the Channel Islands and is 14 miles (23 km) from the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy. The Bailiwick consists of the main island of Jersey and some surrounding uninhabited islands and rocks including Les Dirouilles, Les Écréhous, Les Minquiers, and Les Pierres de Lecq.

Guernsey

Guernsey

Guernsey is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency.

Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands is a self-governing British Overseas Territory, and the largest by population. The 264-square-kilometre (102-square-mile) territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the south of Cuba and northeast of Honduras, between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. The capital city is George Town on Grand Cayman, which is the most populous of the three islands.

European Network of Councils for the Judiciary

European Network of Councils for the Judiciary

The European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) is the European organization that unites the councils of the judiciary – national bodies in support of the Judiciary. From May 2018 the chairman is the Dutchman Kees Sterk. Presidents change every two years.

Chancellor of the High Court

Chancellor of the High Court

The Chancellor of the High Court is the head of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. This judge and the other two heads of divisions sit by virtue of their offices often, as and when their expertise is deemed relevant, in panel in the Court of Appeal. As such this judge ranks equally to the President of the Family Division and the President of the Queen's Bench Division.

Civil Justice Council

Civil Justice Council

The Civil Justice Council is a UK non-departmental public body that advises the Lord Chancellor on civil justice and civil procedure in England and Wales. It was established in 1998 under section 6 of the Civil Procedure Act 1997 and is sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. It is chaired by the Master of the Rolls.

Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. Lincoln's Inn, along with the three other Inns of Court, is recognised as being one of the world's most prestigious professional bodies of judges and lawyers.

King's Inns

King's Inns

The Honorable Society of King's Inns is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environments.

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius, is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of the wealthiest. In 1557, it was refounded by alumnus John Caius. The college has been attended by many students who have gone on to significant accomplishment, including fifteen Nobel Prize winners, the second-highest of any Oxbridge college after Trinity College, Cambridge.

European Law Institute

European Law Institute

The European Law Institute (ELI) is an independent non-profit organisation established to initiate, conduct and facilitate research, make recommendations and provide practical guidance in the field of European legal development with a goal of enhancing the European legal integration. The idea of an ELI was inspired by the activities of the American Law Institute (ALI), founded in 1923 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ELI has individual and institutional members, some of whom have voting rights. Members of ELI include law professors, attorneys, judges and other professionals in the legal industry.

Notable decisions

Notable judicial decisions of Sir Geoffrey include:

Discover more about Notable decisions related topics

Injunction

Injunction

An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. "When a court employs the extraordinary remedy of injunction, it directs the conduct of a party, and does so with the backing of its full coercive powers." A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties, including possible monetary sanctions and even imprisonment. They can also be charged with contempt of court. Counterinjunctions are injunctions that stop or reverse the enforcement of another injunction.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is an American member of the British royal family and former actress. She is the wife of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III.

Bell v Tavistock

Bell v Tavistock

Bell and another v The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, more often called simply Bell v Tavistock, was a case before the Court of Appeal on the question of whether puberty blockers could be prescribed to under-18s with gender dysphoria. It was related to Gillick competence, the legal principle governing under what circumstances under-16s can consent to medical treatment in their own right. By contrast, people aged 16 or older were presumed to have the ability to consent to medical treatment.

Puberty blocker

Puberty blocker

Puberty blockers, also called puberty inhibitors or hormone blockers, are medicines used to postpone puberty in children. The most commonly used puberty blockers are gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists, which suppress the production of sex hormones, including testosterone and estrogen. In addition to their use in treating precocious puberty in children, puberty blockers are also used for transgender children to delay the development of unwanted sex characteristics, so as to allow transgender youth more time to explore their gender identity.

Gender dysphoria in children

Gender dysphoria in children

Gender dysphoria in children (GD), also known as gender incongruence of childhood, is a formal diagnosis for children who experience significant discontent due to a mismatch between their assigned sex and gender identity. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder in children (GIDC) was used by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until it was renamed gender dysphoria in children in 2013 with the release of the DSM-5. The diagnosis was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the Hepatitis B virus that affects the liver; and it leads to Hepatitis

Archie Battersbee case

Archie Battersbee case

Archie Battersbee, a British boy, was the subject of several court hearings between April and August 2022, regarding whether or not to withdraw his life support, after he was found unconscious and subsequently considered to have suffered brainstem death. The courts ruled in favour of Barts Health NHS Trust, and against his parents, and allowed his life support to be withdrawn.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from Elizabeth's accession as queen on 6 February 1952 until his death in 2021, making him the longest-serving royal consort in history.

Diplomatic immunity

Diplomatic immunity

Diplomatic immunity is a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are recognized as having legal immunity from the jurisdiction of another country. It allows diplomats safe passage and freedom of travel in a host country and accords almost total protection from local lawsuits and prosecution.

European Convention on Human Rights

European Convention on Human Rights

The European Convention on Human Rights is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953. All Council of Europe member states are party to the Convention and new members are expected to ratify the convention at the earliest opportunity.

Paris Agreement

Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement, often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. The Paris Agreement was negotiated by 196 parties at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference near Paris, France. As of February 2023, 195 members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are parties to the agreement. Of the four UNFCCC member states which have not ratified the agreement, the only major emitter is Iran. The United States withdrew from the agreement in 2020, but rejoined in 2021.

Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Africa to the southwest. The sovereign state is separated from the Comoros, Mayotte and Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel to the east. The capital and largest city is Maputo.

Personal life

Sir Geoffrey married Vivien Mary Fieldhouse, in 1984.[2] Sir Geoffrey is a member of the Oxford and Cambridge Club and an honorary member of the Worcestershire Golf Club.[2] He is a member of both the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John's Wood and the Herefordshire Jewish community.[10]

Source: "Geoffrey Vos", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 22nd), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Vos.

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References
  1. ^ "Master of the Rolls: 31 July 2020". 10 Downing Street. 31 July 2020. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d "Vos, Rt Hon. Sir Geoffrey (Charles)". Who's Who. 1 December 2020. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U41205. Retrieved 5 April 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "New Master of the Rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos, starts his appointment". Judiciary.uk. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  4. ^ Slingo, Jemma (12 January 2021). "'Lonely, socially distanced' new MR is sworn in". The Law Society Gazette. Retrieved 5 April 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ "Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice". Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  6. ^ "Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice". Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  7. ^ Hyde, John (29 March 2021). "Compulsory mediation back on the table as too few opting into ADR". The Law Society Gazette. Retrieved 5 April 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ Croft, Jane (5 April 2021). "Top judge urges reform in civil lawsuit system in England and Wales". Financial Times. Retrieved 5 April 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ "Keynote Speech by The Right Hon. Sir Geoffrey Vos for London International Disputes Week 2021". Judiciary.uk. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  10. ^ "Geoffrey Vos is appointed as a High Court judge". Thejc.com. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
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