20 Facts About Stephen Sedley

Sir Stephen John Sedley was born on 9 October 1939 and is a British lawyer.

Stephen Sedley worked as a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales from 1999 to 2011 and was a visiting professor at the University of Oxford from 2011 to 2015.

Stephen Sedley founded the firm of lawyers of Seifert and Sedley in the 1940s with Sigmund Seifert, and was a lifelong Communist.

Stephen Sedley was an unsuccessful Communist candidate for the Camden ward on Camden London Borough Council at the 1974 local elections.

Stephen Sedley was described as a "former member" of the party by The Daily Telegraph in 2007.

Stephen Sedley attended Mill Hill School, followed by Queens' College, Cambridge, from which he graduated in 1961.

Stephen Sedley was called to the Bar in 1964 and practised in Cloisters chambers with John Platts-Mills, David Turner-Samuels and Michael Mansfield.

Stephen Sedley had a particular interest in the development of administrative law.

Stephen Sedley was counsel in many high-profile cases and inquiries, from the death of Blair Peach and the Carl Bridgewater murder appeal to the Helen Smith inquest and the contempt hearing against Kenneth Baker, then Home Secretary.

In 1976, Stephen Sedley attended, as one of a group of observers, the "Luanda Trial", sometimes called "the Mercenaries' Trial", held by the then recently-victorious MPLA government in Luanda, Angola.

Stephen Sedley was appointed a High Court judge in 1992, serving in the Queen's Bench Division.

Stephen Sedley was a Judge ad hoc of the European Court of Human Rights and a Member ad hoc of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

In September 2017, Stephen Sedley appeared at the launch of Jewish Voice for Labour, described by activist Jonathan Rosenhead as "a new organisation for Labour Party Jews who don't want to buy into the Jewish Labour Movement's pro-Zionist agenda".

Stephen Sedley spoke on the subject of "Free Speech, Antisemitism and criticism of Israel".

Stephen Sedley made a number of judgments in the field of immigration and asylum law.

Stephen Sedley formulated what has come to be known as "Sedley's Laws of Documents" after experiencing the tribulations of litigation:.

Stephen Sedley has provoked considerable debate about the role of government in collecting and keeping DNA samples.

Stephen Sedley was knighted in 1992, and became a Privy Counsellor in 1999.

Stephen Sedley has been made an Honorary Fellow by the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies and Mansfield College, Oxford.

Stephen Sedley was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of North London in 1996.