{{short description|Scottish judge (1944–2011)}} {{EngvarB|date=February 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}} {{Infobox officeholder |honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable |name = The Lord Rodger of Earlsferry |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|size=100%|country=GBR|PC|FBA|FRSE}} |image = Lord Roger of Earlsferry Independent.jpg |office = Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom{{efn|Lord of Appeal in Ordinary until 30 September 2009}} |term_start = 1 October 2001 |term_end = 26 June 2011 |appointer = Elizabeth II |nominator = Jack Straw |predecessor = The Lord Clyde |successor = Lord Reed |office2 = Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session |term_start2 = 1 October 1996 |term_end2 = 13 November 2002 |predecessor2 = The Lord Hope of Craighead |successor2 = The Lord Cullen of Whitekirk |office3 = Lord Advocate |term_start3 = 15 April 1992 |term_end3 = 7 November 1995 |prime_minister3 = John Major |predecessor3 = The Lord Fraser of Carmyllie |successor3 = The Lord Mackay of Drumadoon |office4 = Solicitor General for Scotland |term_start4 = 14 January 1989 |term_end4 = 15 April 1992 |prime_minister4 = Margaret Thatcher<br />John Major |predecessor4 = Peter Fraser |successor4 = Donald Mackay |office5 = Member of the House of Lords |status5 = Lord Temporal |term_label5 = Life peerage |term_start5 = 29 April 1992 |term_end5 = 26 June 2011 |birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1944|9|18}} |birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland |death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2011|6|26|1944|9|18}} |death_place = Clydebank, Scotland |resting_place = |birth_name = Alan Ferguson Rodger |spouse = |relations = Ferguson Rodger (father) |alma_mater = University of Glasgow<br />New College, Oxford |occupation = Judge |profession = Advocate }} '''Alan Ferguson Rodger, Baron Rodger of Earlsferry''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|PC|FBA|FRSE}} (18 September 1944 – 26 June 2011) was a Scottish academic, lawyer, and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
He served as Lord Advocate, the senior Law Officer of Scotland, before becoming Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session, the head of the country's judiciary. He was then appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lord) and became a Justice of the Supreme Court when the judicial functions of the House of Lords were transferred to that Court.
==Early life and career== Alan Rodger was born on 18 September 1944 in Glasgow, to Professor T Ferguson Rodger, Professor of Psychological Medicine at the University of Glasgow, and Jean Margaret Smith Chalmers, and educated at the private Kelvinside Academy in the city.<ref name="whoswho">{{cite web|title=RODGER OF EARLSFERRY|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U32978|work=Who's Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=December 2008|access-date=20 June 2009}}</ref> He studied at the University of Glasgow, graduating with an MA, and at the University's School of Law, taking an LLB.<ref name="whoswho"/> He then studied at New College, Oxford—under David Daube, Regius Professor of Civil Law—where he graduated with an MA (by decree) and DPhil, and was Dyke Junior Research Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1969 to 1970 and a Fellow of New College from 1970 to 1972.<ref name="whoswho"/>
He became an advocate in 1974<ref name="GN">{{cite web|title=Rt Hon Lord Rodger of Earlsferry appointed an Honorary Professor|url=http://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archive/2009/july/headline_124594_en.html|publisher=University of Glasgow|date=2 July 2009|access-date=20 June 2009}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> and was Clerk of the Faculty of Advocates from 1976 to 1979. He was a Member of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland from 1981 to 1984, and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1985.<ref name="whoswho"/><ref name="GN"/> He was an Advocate Depute from 1985 to 1988 and was appointed Solicitor General for Scotland in 1989, being promoted to Lord Advocate in 1992, and was created a life peer as '''Baron Rodger of Earlsferry''', ''of Earlsferry in the District of North East Fife'' on 29 April 1992,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=52911 |date=5 May 1982 |page=7756}}</ref> and was appointed to the Privy Council.<ref name="whoswho"/><ref name="GN"/>
==Judicial career== Rodger was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the High Court of Justiciary and Court of Session, in 1995,<ref name="herald-1995-11-09-judge" /> He became Lord Justice General and Lord President in 1996. He was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 2001, upon the retirement of Lord Clyde, in which capacity his Judicial Assistants included Charles Banner. He and nine other Lords of Appeal in Ordinary became Justices of the Supreme Court upon that body's inauguration on 1 October 2009.<ref name = Johnston>{{cite ODNB|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/103857|title = Rodger, Alan Ferguson, Baron Rodger of Earlsferry (1944–2011), judge and jurist|last = Johnston|first = David|date = 2015}}</ref>
==Death== Lord Rodger of Earlsferry died from a brain tumour at a hospice in Clydebank on 26 June 2011, at the age of 66.<ref name="death">{{cite news |title=Supreme Court judge Lord Rodger of Earlsferry dies |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13922675 |work=BBC News |date=26 June 2011 |access-date=27 June 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110627112923/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13922675| archive-date= 27 June 2011 | url-status= live}}</ref><ref name = Johnston/> Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who provoked fury after criticising Rodger less than a month earlier,<ref>{{cite news |title=Alex Salmond provokes fury with attack on UK supreme court |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jun/01/alex-salmond-scotland-supreme-court |work=The Guardian |date=1 June 2011 |last=Carrell |first=Severin |access-date=27 June 2011}}</ref> said he had made an "outstanding contribution" to Scottish public life.<ref name="death" />
==Honours== Lord Rodger of Earlsferry was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1991, and the same year was the Maccabaean Lecturer at the Academy. He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, an Honorary Bencher at Lincoln's Inn in 1992, and an Honorary Bencher of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland in 1998. He was appointed an Honorary Member of SPTL, subsequently SLS in 1992 and a Corresponding Member of Bayerische Akademy der Wissenschaften in 2001. He was President of the Holdsworth Club in 1998–99 and made an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2008. He received honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws (LLD) from the Universities of Glasgow (1995), Aberdeen (1999) and Edinburgh (2001).
Lord Rodger of Earlsferry had been the Visitor of St Hugh's College, Oxford, since 2003,<ref>{{cite web|title=St Hugh's College – Law|url=http://www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate-study/courses/law|access-date=20 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609091818/http://www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate-study/courses/law|archive-date=9 June 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> High Steward of the University of Oxford since 2008,<ref>{{cite web|title=Oxford University Gazette: Notices: Appointment of High Steward|url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2008-9/weekly/250908/notc.htm|date=25 September 2008|publisher=University of Oxford|access-date=20 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401230121/http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2008-9/weekly/250908/notc.htm|archive-date=1 April 2012|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> and an Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow School of Law since July 2009.<ref name="GN" />
==Notable judgements== '''As Lord Justice General''' *Drury v Her Majesty's Advocate 2001 SCCR 583 – definition of murder in Scotland
'''As Justice of the Supreme Court''' *R (E) v Governing Body of JFS [2009] UKSC 15 – racial discrimination in religious school admissions (dissenting) *HJ and HT v Home Secretary [2010] UKSC 31 – homosexuality in asylum claims
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== <references> <ref name="herald-1995-11-09-judge">{{cite news | url = http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12063900.Lord_Advocate_becomes_a_judge/ | title = Lord Advocate becomes a judge | newspaper = The Herald | location = Glasgow | date = 9 November 1995 | access-date = 9 June 2016 }}</ref> </references> <!-- end of refs -->
==External links== *[http://www.iuscivile.com/people/earlsferry/ Lord Rodger of Earlsferry: Tributes and Bibliography]
{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{succession box | title=Solicitor General for Scotland | before=Lord Fraser of Carmyllie | after=Lord Dawson | years=1989–1992}}
{{succession box | title=Lord Advocate | before=Lord Fraser of Carmyllie | after=Lord Mackay of Drumadoon | years=1992–1995}}
{{succession box | title=Lord President of the Court of Session <br> and Lord Justice General | before=Lord Hope of Craighead | after=Lord Cullen of Whitekirk | years=1996–2002}}
{{s-aca}} {{s-bef|before=Lord Bingham of Cornhill }} {{s-ttl | title=High Steward of the University of Oxford | years=2008–2011 }} {{s-vac}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodger of Earlsferry, Alan Rodger, Baron}} Category:1944 births Category:2011 deaths Category:Nobility from Glasgow Category:Lawyers from Glasgow Rodger of Earlsferry Category:People educated at Kelvinside Academy Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:Fellows of New College, Oxford Category:Fellows of the British Academy Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Category:Solicitors general for Scotland Category:Lord advocates Category:Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Category:Lord presidents of the Court of Session Category:Lords Justice-General Category:Judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom Category:Members of the Faculty of Advocates Category:Scottish King's Counsel Category:20th-century King's Counsel Category:Senators of the College of Justice Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:British legal historians Category:Scholars of Roman law Category:Scottish legal scholars Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II Category:Deaths from brain cancer in Scotland