Paul Girvan (judge)

Sir Frederick Paul Girvan, styled Rt Hon Lord Justice Girvan (b. 1948) was educated at Larne Grammar School, Belfast Royal Academy, Clare College, Cambridge (BA) and Queen's University, Belfast.

He was created Knight Bachelor on his appointment to as a Justice of the High Court of Northern Ireland, 1995. Sworn of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 25 January 2007^[1] on his appointment as a Lord Justice of Appeal of the Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland.

In July 2006 he delivered a judgment in Downes (Re), Application for Judicial Review,^[2] criticising the appointment of Mrs Bertha McDougall as Interim Victims Commissioner. The judgment was criticised by the former Secretary for State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain in his memoir ‘Outside In’, and in March 2012 the Attorney-General of Northern Ireland began proceedings against Peter Hain and the publishers alleging contempt of court, ^[3] though they were subsequently dropped.

Background

• Called to the Bar: NI, 1971
• Junior Crown Counsel, NI, 1979-1982
• Queen's Counsel (NI), 1982
• Chancellor, Diocese of Armagh (Church of Ireland), 1999–present
• Chairman: Council of Law Reporting for NI, 1994-2001
• Law Reform Advisory Committee for NI, 1997 -2004 (Member since 1994)
• Hon. Bencher, Gray's Inn, 1999.

References

1. ↑ Privy Council Appointment of Sir Frederick Garvin
2. ↑ [2006] NIQB 77; http://www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NIHC/QB/2006/77.html
3. ↑ http://www.bitebackpublishing.com/posts/622 (Retrieved 28 March 2012)