Peter Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith

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Peter Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith : biography

5 January 1950 –

Peter Henry Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith, PC, QC (born 5 January 1950), is a former Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern Ireland. On 22 June 2007, Goldsmith announced his resignation which took effect on 27 June 2007, the same day that prime minister, Tony Blair, stepped down. Goldsmith was the longest serving Labour Attorney General. He currently works for US law firm Debevoise & Plimpton as head of its European litigation practice.

Biography

Goldsmith was born in Liverpool and is of Jewish descent, he was educated at Quarry Bank School (now Calderstones School) before reading law at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and University College London. He was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn in 1972, practising from Fountain Court Chambers in London. He became a Queen’s Counsel in 1987 and a Deputy High Court Judge in 1994 and he was elected the youngest ever Chairman of the Bar of England and Wales in 1995. He was created a Labour Life Peer in 1999, as Baron Goldsmith, of Allerton in the County of Merseyside. He was appointed Her Majesty’s Attorney General in June 2001. One of his first acts was to discuss breaches of the injunction against publishing the whereabouts of the offenders in the James Bulger murder case. He became a Privy Counsellor in 2002.

Goldsmith has also held a number of posts in international legal organisations, including Council Member of the International Bar Association (IBA) and of the Union Internationale des Avocats. From 1998 until his appointment as Attorney General he was co-Chairman of the IBA’s Human Rights Institute. Between 1997 and 2000 he was Chairman of the Financial Reporting Review Panel, a non-departmental public body responsible for enforcing financial reporting standards. In 1997 he was elected to membership of the American Law Institute and made a member of the Paris Bar.

In 1996 he founded the Bar Pro Bono Unit of which he was Chairman until 2000 and remains President. He was the Prime Minister’s Personal Representative to the Convention for the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

In November 2006, he visited a number of pro bono legal and criminal justice charities in Kenya, including Philemon Ministries. Report of Lord Goldsmith’s Visit to Kenyan charities]

In 2006, Goldsmith gave a speech at the Royal United Services Institute, calling for the closure of the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. Goldsmith called it a "symbol of injustice", and said that it did not respect the rights of liberty or freedom.

On 17 February 2007, the Mail on Sunday reported that Goldsmith, who is married, had been having an affair with Kim Hollis QC.

In 2007, Goldsmith was accused of attempting to cover up the BAE-Saudi corruption case by ordering the Serious Fraud Office to call off its ongoing investigation into the matter, arguing that it might "compromise national security."

Offices held

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Category:1950 births Category:People educated at Calderstones School Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Category:People educated at Quarry Bank High School Category:Alumni of University College London Category:Attorneys General for England and Wales Category:Attorneys General for Northern Ireland Category:English Queen’s Counsel Category:English barristers Category:Labour Party (UK) life peers Category:Lawyers from Liverpool Category:Living people Category:Members of Gray’s Inn Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Northern Ireland Government ministers Category:Queen’s Counsel 1901–2000 Category:Stances and opinions regarding the Iraq War Category:British people of Jewish descent

Invasion of Iraq controversy

The nature of Goldsmith’s legal advice to the Government over the legality of the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a significant political issue at the time.

The Government turned down repeated calls to break with tradition and have the advice made public. Goldsmith’s original memo to the Prime Minister written on 30 January 2003 opined that UN Resolution 1441 did not sanction the use of force and that a further resolution would be required before military action."A Very British Deceit", Philippe Sands QC, NYRB, 30 September 2010 A subsequent memo written on 7 March 2003, was eventually leaked to the press, which led to its official publication on 28 April 2005. In the memo, Lord Goldsmith discussed whether the use of force in Iraq could legally be justified by Iraq’s ‘material breach’, as established in UN Security Council Resolution 1441, of its ceasefire obligations as imposed by Security Council Resolution 687 at the end of the First Gulf War. Goldsmith concluded that ‘a reasonable case can be made that resolution 1441 is capable in principle of reviving the authorisation [of the use of force] in Resolution 678 without a further resolution.’ However, Goldsmith did concede that ‘a court might well conclude that operative paragraphs 4 and 12 do require a further Council decision in order to revive the authorisation.’ In this Memo he also concluded "the argument that resolution 1441 alone has revived the authorisation to use force in resolution 678 will only be sustainable if there are strong factual grounds for concluding that Iraq has failed to take the final opportunity. In other words, we would need to be able to demonstrate hard evidence of non-compliance and non-cooperation."