James Atkin, Baron Atkin

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James Richard Atkin, Baron Atkin (November 28, 1867 - June 25, 1944) was an English judge, and people in the U.S. would call him a jurist.

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 and life peer under the title Baron Atkin, of Aberdovey in the County of Merionethshire. 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 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.

Atkin's grandson, by his daughter Lucy Atkin, was the politician and business leader Sir Toby Low, 1st Baron Aldington.

[edit] Bibliography

• Atkin, J. R. (1922) Law for Laymen John O'London's Weekly
• - (1922) When Witnesses Fail The Detective Magazine
• - (1929) Appeals in English Law
• Lewis, G. (1983) Lord Atkin ISBN 1-84113-057-5