The Viscount Sankey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Lord Chancellor | |
| In office 7 June 1929 – 7 June 1935 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | Ramsay MacDonald |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Hailsham |
| Succeeded by | The Viscount Hailsham |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Sankey 26 October 1866 (1866-10-26) Moreton-in-Marsh, England |
| Died | 6 February 1948 (1948-02-07) (aged 81) London, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | Jesus College, Oxford |
John Sankey, 1st Viscount Sankey (26 October 1866 – 6 February 1948) was a British lawyer, judge,Labour politician andLord High Chancellor of Great Britain, famous for many of his judgments in theHouse of Lords. He gave his name to theSankey Declaration of the Rights of Man (1940).
He was the son of Thomas Sankey, a grocer ofMoreton-in-Marsh,Gloucestershire, by his second wife Catalina (née Dewsbury).[1] Sankey's father died when he was 8 years old, when the family moved to Castle Road (nowCity Road) inRoath, Cardiff.[2] Sankey was educated at a localAnglican school, and with the financial support of an Anglican clergyman he attendedLancing College, a public school inSussex. He studied atJesus College, Oxford, graduating with asecond-classBA inModern History in 1889, and a third-classBachelor of Civil Law degree in 1891. He wascalled to the Bar atMiddle Temple in 1892.[1]
Sankey began his practice as abarrister in south Wales, later specialising in workmen's compensation cases. In 1909 he was appointed aKing's Counsel.[1][3]
Sankey became a judge of theHigh Court, King's Bench Division, in 1914. In 1919, Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George appointed him to chair theSankey Commission into thecoal industry, which recommended a seven-hour day for miners and thenationalisation of the industry.[4][5] He was appointed aLord Justice of Appeal in 1928.[6]
OnLabour's victory in the1929 general election, Sankey was appointedLord Chancellor byRamsay MacDonald,[1] and was raised to the peerage asBaron Sankey, of Moreton in the County of Gloucester.[7] He was one of the few Labour politicians to follow MacDonald into theNational Government in 1931, and served as Lord Chancellor until 1935, whenStanley Baldwin re-entered office. In 1932 he was createdViscount Sankey, of Moreton in theCounty of Gloucester.[8]
Several of his judgments in the House of Lords have become landmark statements of law. Sankey's judgment inWoolmington v DPP [1935] AC 462 is famous for iterating the duty inherent on the prosecution to prove the prisoner's guilt beyond areasonable doubt. In pertinent part, his judgment stated:
Throughout the web of theEnglish criminal law one golden thread is always to be seen – that it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner's guilt subject to what I have already said as to thedefence of insanity and subject also to any statutory exception...
This judgment is usually referred to as the "golden thread".[citation needed]
Sitting in theJudicial Committee of the Privy Council, Lord Sankey gave decisions in significantCanadian constitutional law cases. Of particular note isEdwards v. Canada (Attorney General) (often referred to as the Persons Case). In his decision, Sankey affirmed that women are eligible to be appointed to theSenate of Canada. In his analysis, he set out theliving tree doctrine of constitutional interpretation that has become a foundation of Canadian constitutional law. In another significant decision, theAeronautics Reference, Sankey held that thefederal government had exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over aeronautics.
Sankey's name was associated with theSankey Declaration of the Rights of Man,[9] the product of the Sankey Committee, which was set up in 1940 by theDaily Herald and theNational Peace Council, and which Sankey chaired. The most active member of the committee wasH. G. Wells, who prepared the draft that the Declaration was based on. It identified eleven fundamental human rights:
The Sankey Declaration was widely publicised by its sponsors at the time, but has since been largely forgotten, having been overtaken by theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights.
Sankey played a key role in establishing the legal framework of the newly disestablishedChurch in Wales.
Sankey never married. He died in London on 6 February 1948, aged 81, when the peerage became extinct.[1] He is buried in The Lower Cemetery of Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire.[citation needed] Ahouse at his former schoolLancing College is named after him.[10] Sankey endowed a scholarship for students at Jesus College Oxford seeking to practise at the English Bar.
  |
|
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain 1929–1935 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Viscount Sankey 1932–1948 | Extinct |
| Baron Sankey 1929–1948 | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
.svg)
