LAUSR

Introduction These two books are collections of writings by retired judges who have made major contributions to the development of the law in their own ways. Sir Stephen Sedley and Lord Dyson are contemporaries, having been appointed to the High Court bench within a few months of each other in the early 1990s. As will be seen below, the two judges illustrate contrasting styles and ways of making a difference. Lord Dyson was the first judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court without a peerage, in 2010, succeeding Lord Neuberger who had not moved to the Supreme Court with the other Law Lords, but had become Master of the Rolls. In 2012, when Lord Neuberger became President, Lord Dyson moved to succeed him again, in the role of head of Civil Justice. In this respect, Lord Dyson followed in the footsteps of his predecessors Lords Denning, Woolf, Phillips and Neuberger in moving from sitting on the final court of appeal to lead the Civil Division of the intermediate appellate court. Sir Stephen Sedley was appointed to the High Court in 1992, he served on the Court of Appeal for 12 years until 2011, and has been a prominent commentator throughout his career. A Westlaw search reveals that the two judges sat together in 30 cases (across the Privy Council and Court of Appeal). They disagreed on the resolution of an appeal only twice. There is a value in collections such as these, as they provide a compendium for the examination of a given judge’s extra-curial statements. In what follows, we shall, without intending any disrespect, refer to each of their Lordships by surname only, in order to avoid confusion as to which Lordship we mean at any stage. We offer here our reflections and critical commentary on the two books, emboldened by the recognition of Lord Dyson that