Nolan, Michael Patrick 1928-2007 (Michael Patrick Nolan, Baron of Brasted in the County of Kent)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born September 10, 1928; died January 22, 2007. Attorney, judge, and author. Nolan was known both for his rather controversial service on the Court of Appeal and as the former head of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, where he held members of Parliament to higher standards of accountability. A graduate of Wadham College, Oxford, he specialized in tax law and was called to the Bar of Middle Temple in 1953. He had a private law practice and then, in 1968, was named to the Queen's Counsel and was given the privilege of sitting on the Bar of the Queen's Counsel in 1974. That year, he also was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland. After serving on the Crown Court as a recorder, Nolan was appointed a judge on the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court in 1982; he was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1991. During the 1980s and 1990s, Nolan made some controversial decisions on the bench. For example, he gave a light, three-year sentence to a man convicted of incest; ruled that an anorexic girl could be force fed; and declared that a Zairian woman had been illegally deported by Home Secretary Kenneth Baker. This last case was important because it was the first time a British minister had been found in contempt of court for pursuing official duties. Nolan, too, was on a panel that overturned the guilty ruling of the Birmingham Six, six men accused of two bombings of English pubs based on negligible evidence. A Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1994 to 1998, Nolan was also named chair of the Committee on Standards by Prime Minister John Major in 1994. The committee was formed after the cash-for-questions scandal in which Parliament members had been bribed by lobbyists. Nolan served in this post until 1997, upsetting many members of Parliament by presiding over a body that insisted that MPs report their earnings from any work done outside of their normal government duties. This included accepting money for consulting jobs, and they were prohibited from doing any lobbying work. After retiring from the House of Lords in 1998, he was asked by the Catholic Church in 2000 to investigate ways to stem the problem of pedophilia among priests. Nolan issued a report the following year making numerous suggestions, including the creation of a national database that would inform dioceses of any candidates who had been rejected or disciplined for misbehavior at other dioceses. Nolan was the author, with Stephen Sedley, of The Making and Remaking of the British Constitution (1997).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), January 25, 2007, p. 60.