Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin

Patrick Arthur Devlin, Baron Devlin lived from November 25, 1905 to August 9, 1992 and was a British judge and legal philosopher. He was the second-youngest English High Court judge of the twentieth century and served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1960 to 1964. In 1959 he 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. He was also involved in the debate about homosexuality in British law, arguing in response to the Wolfenden report, and against H. L. A. Hart, that a common public morality should be upheld.