Robert Douglas Carswell, Baron Carswell, PC, QC (born 28 June 1934), is a retired Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.
The son of Alan and Nance Carswell was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Pembroke College, Oxford, where he received a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in classics and law in 1956. Two years later he graduated from the University of Chicago's Law School with a Doctor of Jurisprudence.
Carswell was Counsel to the Attorney General for Northern Ireland in the years 1970 and 1971, and Senior Crown Counsel in Northern Ireland from 1979 to 1984. In 1984, he became Judge of the High Court of Justice Northern Ireland, a post he held until 1993. He was Lord Justice of Appeal at the Supreme Court of Judicature in Northern Ireland from 1993 to 1997 and further Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2004.
Lord Carswell was made a Queen's Counsel in 1971 and became a Privy Counsellor in 1993. He was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary [1] as Baron Carswell, of Killeen in the County of Down on 12 January 2004,[2] having been knighted in 1988.
On 20 November, 2007, Lord Carswell gave a lecture entitled The Breastplate of Judgment: Human Rights in the House of Lords at the University of Cambridge.[3]
During 2009-2010, Lord Carswell chaired an inquiry into the roles of Jersey's Crown Officers (the Bailiff, Deputy Bailiff, Attorney General and Solicitor General), presenting a report recommending reforms to the States of Jersey on 6 December 2010.
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Lord Carswell married Romayne Winifred Ferris in 1961; they have two daughters.
Lady Carswell was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Belfast in 2000.
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| Preceded by Brian Hutton |
Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland 1997–2004 |
Succeeded by Brian Kerr |