Judges of Appeal

Current

The Hon Sir Michael Birt

Sir Michael Birt was educated at St Michael’s Preparatory School in Jersey and then at Marlborough College, Wiltshire.
He attended Magdalene College, Cambridge University from 1966 – 1969 where he obtained a degree in law.
He was called to the English Bar in 1970. After pupillage at 7 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn he joined common law chambers as a tenant at 2 Crown Office Row, Temple where he practised as a barrister until 1975.
In 1976, he joined the firm of Ogier & Le Cornu in Jersey and on 3rd October 1977, qualified as a Jersey advocate.
He became a partner of Ogier & Le Cornu on 1st January 1978 and was appointed a Crown Advocate in 1987. In January 1994, he was sworn in as Attorney General for Jersey.
He was appointed a QC in 1995.
He served as Deputy Bailiff of Jersey from February 2000 until July 2009.
He was sworn in as Bailiff (Chief Justice) of Jersey in July 2009 and retired in January 2015.
He currently sits as a Commissioner (judge) of the Royal Court of Jersey and is a member of the Courts of Appeal in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
His appointment begins in November 2018.

The Rt Hon Sir Jack Beatson

Sir Jack Beatson was a member of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales between January 2013 and February 2018.
Between 2003 and the end of 2012, he served as a Justice of the Queen’s Bench Division, sitting in the Administrative Court and the Commercial Court as well as in the general QB list and presiding over criminal trials.
He was Fellow and Tutor in Law at Merton College, Oxford between 1973 and 1994, a Law Commissioner for England and Wales between 1989 and 1994, a member of the Competition Commission between 1995 and 2001, and the Rouse Ball Professor of English Law at Cambridge University and a Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge from 1994 until 2003.
Called to the Bar in 1973
He was a member of Essex Court Chambers between 1982 and 1989, and 1994 and 2003, and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1998.
At the Law Commission, Sir Jack led its work on contract and commercial law, civil evidence, damages, administrative law, and financial services.
He has authored and edited leading legal texts including Anson’s Law of Contract (27th – 30th eds.), Good Faith and Fault in Contract Law (1995), and Human Rights: Judicial Protection in the United Kingdom (2006).
He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2001, and awarded higher doctorates by the Universities of Oxford (DCL) Cambridge (LLD) on the basis of his publications.
He holds Honorary Fellowships at Brasenose College, Oxford (where he studied law), Merton College, Oxford, and St John’s College, Cambridge. Since leaving the Court of Appeal, Sir Jack has become an arbitrator at 24 Lincoln’s Inn Fields and a judge of the Astana International Financial Centre’s Court in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
His appointment begins in November 2018.

Rt. Hon. Sir Richard Field

Born 1947, British
University education at Bristol University (LLB) and at the London School of Economics (LLM)
Called to the Bar of England and Wales, 1977
Barrister at 11 King’s Bench Walk, London and One Essex Court, London practising principally in commercial law including banking derivatives, insurance, international sales, competition law and auditors’ negligence, 1977-2001
Appointed Queen’s Counsel,1987
Deputy Judge, High Court of England and Wales 1998-2002
Judge, High Court of England and Wales 2002-2014,sitting in the Commercial Court
Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court 2014
Presiding Judge, Western Circuit 2008-2012
Justice of the DIFC Court (Dubai) from April 2015
Deputy Judge of the Hong Kong High Court from April 2015
Bencher, Hon Society of the Inner Temple
Associate Professor, University of British Columbia and Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal 1969-1971 and 1973-1977
Lecturer in law, Hong Kong University, 1971-1973
Tung Yu Cheng Visiting Professor, Hong Kong University, 2014 –2015
Arbitrator, International Commercial Arbitration in London, Hong Kong and Singapore
Appointed Justice of the Court of Appeal, Cayman Islands, 2015

Hon. Justice John Martin KC

Born 1948, British
M.A. (Law), Pembroke College, Cambridge
Called to the Bar of England and Wales 1972
Appointed Queen’s Counsel 1991
Elected Bencher, Lincoln’s Inn 1999
In practice at the Commercial Chancery Bar in London
Head of Chambers from 2010
Deputy High Court Judge (Chancery Division) for England and Wales from 1993
Judge of the Courts of Appeal, Jersey and Guernsey from 2007
Appointed Justice of the Court of Appeal, Cayman Islands 2013

Rt. Hon. Sir Alan Moses

University College, Oxford
Called to the Bar of England by the Middle Temple, 1968
Member of the Attorney-General’s Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown, Common Law from 1981 to 1990
Member of Junior Counsel to the Inland Revenue, Common Law from 1985 to 1990
Took Silk in 1990 and elected a Bencher in 1994
Appointed a Recorder in 1986
Formerly a Judge of the High Court (Queen’s Bench Division) in 1996
Formerly a Presiding Judge for the South East Circuit from 1999 to 2002
Appointed Lord Justice of Appeal in 2005
Honorary member of the Royal Academy of Arts, as Professor of Law, in 2006
Appointed as the first chairman of the Independent Press Standards Organisation
Appointed Justice of the Court of Appeal, Cayman Islands, 2015

Hon. Justice Sir Bernard Rix

Born 1944, British
University education at New College, Oxford and Harvard Law School
Called to the Bar of England and Wales, 1970
Barrister at 3 Essex Court (now 20 Essex Street) practising principally in commercial law, including shipping, insurance, banking, private and public international law, and arbitration law, 1970-1993
Appointed Queen’s Counsel, 1981
Chairman of COMBAR, 1992-1993
Judge, High Court of England and Wales 1993-2000, sitting predominantly in the Commercial Court (Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court 1998-1999)
Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, 2000-2013
Treasurer of the Hon Society of the Inner Temple, 2005
Professor of International Commercial Law, Queen Mary, University of London 2013 –
Appointed Justice of the Court of Appeal, Cayman Islands, 2013
Arbitrator, International Commercial Arbitration, practice primarily in London, but also in Hong Kong and Singapore
Trustee of BIICL (British Institute of International and Comparative Law), 2003-2012
Chairman, Advisory Council, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, QMUL, 2003-
Honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford
Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary, University of London
President of BILA (British Insurance Law Association), 2007
President of the Harvard Law School Association of the UK, 2002-
Director, London Philharmonic Orchestra, 1986-2014
Visiting Jones Day Professor of Commercial Law, Singapore Management University, 2015

Former

Hon. Justice C. Dennis Morrison

Born 1950, Jamaican
University education at University of the West Indies and as a Jamaican Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford
Admitted as an attorney-at-law in Jamaica, 1975
Academic Staff (full time) of Norman Manley Law School and Council of Legal Education for the Commonwealth Caribbean, 1978-1982 and then associate tutor and course director
Joined Dunn, Cox & Orrett, 1982-present
Partner, 1985 and Head of Litigation, 1995-2008
Appointed Queen’s Counsel, 1994
Appeared before Courts in a wide range of jurisdictions in the Caribbean and before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
President, Jamaican Bar Association, 1995-1999
Secretary, Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations, 1985-1993
Former Member of General Legal Council for Jamaica
Chairman, Kingston Legal Aid Clinic, 1995-2008
Founding Chairman, Legal Aid Council of Jamaica, 1997-2001
Chairman, Council of Legal Education, 1998-2005
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
Justice of Appeal, Belize, 2004-2015
Justice of Appeal, Jamaica, 2008
President of the Court of Appeal, Jamaica, 2016
Commonwealth Foundation Fellow, 1991
Member of Commonwealth Expert Group on the reform of the law of evidence, 2001
Leo Goodwin Memorial Fellow at Nova Southeastern University, Florida 2004
Chairman, Continuing Legal Professional Development Committee, Jamaica, 2015-present
Appointed Justice of the Court of Appeal, Cayman Islands, 2015
Member, Cayman Islands Judicial Education Committee, 2016

Hon. Justice Elliot D. Mottley KC

Born 1939, Barbados;
Called to the Bar in England and Wales November 1961;
Admitted to the Bar in Barbados as Barrister, 1961;
Admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the West Indies Associated States (practicing in St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Montserrat and Anguilla), 1967;
Member of Barbados Parliament (for the constituency of the City of Bridgetown for the Barbados Labour Party), 1969 – 1976;
Principal Representative of the Government of Barbados in New York, U.S.A. (Designation of Counsel General),1976;
Appointed Queen’s Counsel, 1980;
Admitted to practice at the Bar in Trinidad & Tobago, 1992;
Her Majesty’s Attorney General for the Island of Bermuda; acting as Deputy Governor on several occasions; 1995 – 1998;
Appointed non-resident Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal, Belize, 1999;
Chairman, Disciplinary Committee of the Barbados Bar Association, 1999 – 2000;
Appointed non-resident Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal Turks & Caicos Islands 2002;
Acted as Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of Barbados, 2002;
Admitted to practice at the Bar in Antigua and Barbuda, 2003;
Appointed President of the Court of Appeal, Belize, 2004;
Appointed Justice of the Court Appeal, the Cayman Islands 2005 to present.

Hon. Justice Sir George Newman

Born 1941, British
B.A. St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge 1961-64
Called to the Bar of England and Wales by Middle Temple, 1965
Appointed Queen’s Counsel, 1981
Appointed Recorder of the Crown Court for England & Wales, 1982
Appointed Deputy High Court Judge, 1989
Elected a Bencher of the Middle Temple, 1989
Treasurer, Middle Temple 2009
Practised primarily in London but also in Bermuda, Brunei, Fiji, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore
Extensive experience in constitutional and commercial cases
Constitutional Adviser to the Governor General of Fiji (1987) and to the President of Fiji (1987-1990)
Formerly a Judge of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court
Formerly non-resident Judge of the Court of Appeal in the Bahamas
Appointed as Surveillance Commissioner for England and Wales in January 2010
Appointed Justice of the Court of Appeal, Cayman Islands 2013