Devlin, Patrick, Baron, 1905-1992

Patrick Arthur Devlin, Baron Devlin, PC, FBA (25 November 1905 – 9 August 1992), was a British judge and legal philosopher. The second-youngest English High Court judge in the 20th century, he served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1960 to 1964. In 1959, Devlin headed the Devlin Commission, which reported on the State of Emergency declared by the colonial governor of Nyasaland. In 1985 he became the first British judge to write a book about a case he had presided over, the 1957 trial of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams. Devlin was involved in the debate about homosexuality in British law; in response to the Wolfenden report, he argued, contrary to H. L. A. Hart, that a common public morality should be upheld. Devlin's daughter Clare, then aged 81, said in 2021 that her father had sexually abused her from the age of 7 until her teens.