The website of the judges, magistrates and tribunal members in England and Wales

Biography

Sir Robert Carnwath is a Lord Justice of Appeal, having been appointed in September 2001.  Before that he was a Judge of the High Court, Chancery Division, from 1994.  He also sat regularly to hear cases in the Crown Office List, dealing with judicial review and administrative law.  In July 2004 he was appointed Senior President of Tribunals, under the Government proposals for reforming the Tribunal system. 

Previously he was in practice as a barrister in the Chambers of the Right Hon. Geoffrey Rippon QC, MP (now Landmark Chambers).  His main areas of practice were Local Government, Planning and Environmental Law, and Administrative Law.  Between 1980 and 1985 he was Junior Counsel to the Inland Revenue.  He took silk in 1985.  He served a period as Chairman of the Administrative Law Bar Association.  He was Chairman of the Law Commission for England and Wales from February 1999 until July 2002.

He has written extensively on planning and environmental law. In 1989 he was the author of a report for the Department of the Environment on the Enforcement of Planning Control, the main recommendations of which were enacted in the Planning and Compensation Act 1991.  He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Environmental Law. He is President of the UK Environmental Law Association (UKELA).

Internationally, he is a founding member, and Secretary-General, of the European Union Forum of Judges for the Environment (EUFJE), and a member of the editorial committee for the proposed UNEP handbook on environmental law.

Between 1988 and 1994 he was Attorney-General to HRH the Prince of Wales.
Outside the law, his main interest is in music: he is Chairman of the Britten-Pears Foundation, and a singing member of the Bach Choir.