Alan Ferguson Rodger, Baron Rodger of Earlsferry FRSE Federal Bar Association Personal Computer was a Scottish lawyer and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
Background
Alan Rodger was born on 18 September 1944 in Glasgow, to Professor T Ferguson Rodger, Professor of Psychological Medicine at the University of Glasgow, and Jean Margaret Smith Chalmers, and educated at the independent Kelvinside Academy in the city.
Education
He studied at the University of Glasgow, graduating with an Master of Arts, and at the University"s School of Law, taking an Bachelor of Laws. He then studied at New College, Oxford—under David Daube, Regius Professor of Civil Law—where he graduated with an Master of Arts (by decree) and Doctor of Philosophy, and was Dyke Junior Research Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1969 to 1970 and a Fellow of New College from 1970 to 1972.
Career
He served as Lord Advocate, the senior Law Officer of Scotland, before becoming Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session, the head of the country"s judiciary. He was then appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lord) and became a Justice of the Supreme Court when the judicial functions of the House of Lords were transferred to that Court. He became an advocate in 1974 and was Clerk of the Faculty of Advocates from 1976 to 1979.
He was an Advocate Depute from 1985 to 1988 and was appointed Solicitor General for Scotland in 1989, being promoted to Lord Advocate in 1992, at which time he became a life peer as Baron Rodger of Earlsferry, of Earlsferry in the District of North East Fife, and was appointed to the Privy Council.
Rodger was appointed a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the High Court of Justiciary and Court of Session, in 1995, and became Lord Justice General and Lord President in 1996. He was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 2001, upon the retirement of Lord Clyde.
He and nine other Lords of Appeal in Ordinary became Justices of the Supreme Court upon that body"s inauguration on 1 October 2009. Notable judgments As Lord Justice General Drury v Her Majesty"s Advocate 2001 SCCR 583 - definition of murder in Scotland As Justice of the Supreme Court HJ and HT v Home Secretary UKSC 31 - homosexuality in asylum claims Lord Rodger of Earlsferry died on 26 June 2011 after a short illness.
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who provoked fury after criticising Rodger less than a month earlier, said he had made an "outstanding contribution" to Scottish public life.
Membership
Faculty of Advocates. Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities]
He was a Member of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland from 1981 to 1984, and was appointed Queen"s Counsel in 1985.