Attorney General delivers Roscoe Lecture
The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, 'guardian of the public interest', delivered the 63rd Roscoe Lecture in St George's Hall on 28 February.
The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, 'guardian of the public interest', delivered the 63rd Roscoe Lecture in St George's Hall on 28 February.
His appearance in his home town of Liverpool sparked small protests both outside and inside the Hall by the Stop the War Coalition, who dispute his 2003 ruling that the invasion of Iraq was legal.
The auditorium was packed with around 900 people, who were unswayed by the protestors' demands to disrupt the lecture. Instead they listened intently as Lord Goldsmith said that he disliked the term 'war on terror' instead preferring to view it as a 'war of values'. In order to win this war against extremism, he said, we had to show ourselves to be more fair and more just that the alternative.
He went on to describe the three basic principles that needed to be upheld in a civil society. First, we must respect the rule of law, and fulfil both our domestic and international legal oblations. Second, we must show a commitment to upholding the fundamental values underpinning our democracy, such as right of habeas corpus and freedom of speech, which are the very liberties that extremists are seeking to destroy. Finally, the law must be impartial and achieve a balance between the rights of individual and that of the state. As a result, he said certain rights, such as the right to a fair trial or the prohibition of torture, were 'non-negotiable'.
About Lord Goldsmith
Lord Goldsmith QC was appointed Her Majesty's Attorney General on 11 June 2001. The Attorney General, assisted by the Solicitor General, is the chief legal adviser to the Government.
Peter Goldsmith was born and brought up in Liverpool. He went to Quarry Bank High School/Comprehensive there before reading law at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge taking a double first class honours degree. After a Master's Degree at University College London he was called to the Bar in 1972. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1987, and has judicial experience, sitting as a Crown Court Recorder since 1987 and a Deputy High Court Judge since 1994.
He was created a Life Peer in 1999, and a Privy Counsellor in 2002. In 1995 he was Chairman of the Bar of England and Wales. From 1998 until his appointment as Attorney General he was co-Chairman of the IBA's Human Rights Institute. In 1996 he founded the Bar Pro Bono Unit of which he was Chairman until 2000 and remains President. He was also the Prime Minister's Personal Representative to the Convention for the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.
