James Richard Atkin

Born in Brisbane, Australia, he returned to his ancestral home in Aberdovey, Wales before studying at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became a judge of the High Court in 1913 and a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1919. From 1928 until his death he was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. In 1932, as a member of the House of Lords, he delivered the leading judgement in the landmark case of Donoghue v. Stevenson which established the modern law of negligence in the UK.

He is also remembered for his courageous dissenting judgement in Liversidge v. Anderson in which he unsuccessfully asserted the courts' right to question the wide discretionary powers of the
World War II security services to detain aliens.

Bibliography