Lord Devlin, in an insightful foreword to this book of essays on Lord Denning’s contribution to the law, said, in the beginning paragraph, that there is no precedent for so comprehensive an assessment of a judge’s work to be issued almost immediately on his retirement from the Bench. Usually, the assessment is in a stately obituary in The Times, London, and a biography for the few judges who merit one.
Fast forward to the years circa 2015 onwards; it is the norm for a book on his or her contributions to the law to be released very soon after a top judge in Singapore and Malaysia retires.
The change in mindset can be seen in CJ Menon’s introduction to the book Pioneer, Polymath, and Mentor: The Life and Legacy of Yong Pung How, launched in April 2024, a 510-page biography written by Justice Andrew Phang that documents the monumental contributions of the former Chief Justice of Singapore.
I personally welcome this ‘new’ development. There is no need to wait for an obituary to appreciate the achievements of a top judge.
On a separate note, Lord Devlin said that Lord Denning secured his legacy in the annals of English legal history because he stepped down from the House of Lords to become the Master of the Rolls in the Court of Appeal, where he could pick his own cases to hear and his colleagues to hear with.
Had he remained in the House of Lords, he would have remained a junior law lord, and “in the Lords, influence on the law was then heavily dependent on seniority since the senior law lord usually gave the leading judgment.” (P vi hardcover edition).
These remarks by Lord Devlin remind me of similar remarks by a brother judge who opined that the Malaysian and Singaporean public, years from now, would only recall Justice Su Tian Joo as the judge who heard the Pastor Koh case.
They won’t recall the names of the appellate judges who will hear the appeal, as the papers would report the outcome merely as “the Court of Appeal allows or dismisses the appeal.”
LWH, 5 March 2026, Chap Goh Mei +2 days