Lord Hope of Craighead, having retired from the Bench in the UK, became available privately as a practising arbitrator. In October 2013 he joined Brick Court chambers in London as an arbitrator.[12] Additionally he joined Terra Firma chambers in Edinburgh as an arbitrator from June 2023.[13] From October 2015 to December 2023 and continuing, Lord Hope of Craighead served as remunerated Chief Justice of Abu Dhabi Global Market Courts.[14][15][16]
In November 2014 it was announced that Lord Hope of Craighead would be appointed as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2015.[17]He served as Convenor of the Crossbench peers in the House of Lords from 2015 to 2019.[18]
Lord Hope of Craighead resides in Moray Place in Edinburgh and in 2014 appeared in a television documentary programme about his home and the street in which it stands.[19]
Lord Hope of Craighead's Historical Archives
In November 2014, Lord Hope of Craighead donated to the National Library of Scotland 16 boxes containing 90 files spanning the period 1953 - 2014.[20] Access to all these documents is unrestricted. The Inventory references: 1-79 Professional Papers (1-46 Advocate’s Opinions, 1978-1989; 47-55 Dean of Faculty Notes and Draft Letters, 1986-1989; 56-78 Judicial Opinions, 1989-1994; 79 Financial Papers, 1965-1989); 80 Personal Papers, 1959-1962; 81-90 Ephemera, 1953-2014.[21] The first 46 items in the Inventory, Advocate’s Opinions, 1978-1989, were produced under legal professional privilege.
Diaries
Starting in 2018, Lord Hope of Craighead's diaries were published in five volumes. These are:
Senior Counsel 1978-1986: Lord Hope's Diaries Volume I[22]
Dean of Faculty 1986-1989: Lord Hope's Diaries Volume II[23]
Lord President 1989-1996: Lord Hope's Diaries Volume III[24]
House of Lords 1996-2009: Lord Hope's Diaries Volume IV[25]
UK Supreme Court. and Afterwards 2009-2015: Lord Hope's Diaries Volume V[26]
The works chronicled his life, experiences and rise to the top, from Senior Counsel to his retirement from the Supreme Court. They contain observations on his judicial colleagues and disclose information as to panel deliberations, as appears in the Controversies section below.
Controversies
1989: handling of homosexual judge scandal
On 22 December 1989 Lord Dervaird, a Scottish judge, resigned from the bench after a mere two years’ service.[27] On 17 January 1990 the press reported that three senior Scottish judges had been questioned by Lord Hope, the Lord President, as to their possible involvement in vice rings or homosexual behaviour.[28] This reportage arose because Lord Hope had called a meeting of newspaper editors at his Edinburgh home in which he detailed the rumours "unattributively" regarding three Court of Session judges (out of a then total of 24 judges).[29] This meeting caused the scandals to be "splashed across the front pages."[30] By December 2016 government papers covering these events had been declassified and were now available to the public. This resulted in human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell demanding an apology from Malcolm Rifkind, the former Scottish Secretary, for his actions in forcing Lord Dervaird from judicial office because of rumours of his being homosexual.[31] Dervaird’s sudden resignation followed almost immediately on a meeting between himself, Rifkind and Lord Hope. Margaret Thatcher, the then prime minister, was informed that Rifkind and Lord Hope considered that Dervaird should be asked to resign. It was this pressure to resign that was the subject of Peter Tatchell's complaint.
2011: accusations of xenophobia and implied breach of judicial oath against the Scottish judiciary
Lord Hope of Craighead, then deputy President of the UK Supreme Court, created a sensation in November 2011 by allegedly suggesting that Scottish Judges were clandestinely hostile to cases being reviewed on appeal to the Supreme Court in London.[32] He was reported by Lucy Adams of the Glasgow Herald as saying: "There is [in England and Wales] none of the feeling of antipathy towards cases being sent to London that lies just below the surface here in Scotland."[33] These words were subsequently described by Lord Hope of Craighead as misreported or not said at all, despite the journalist publicly offering a recording.[34] The version of the speech Lord Hope of Craighead approved for posting on the Supreme Court website does not include the contested wording.[35] He maintained in response a complete news blackout at a subsequent speech-giving in Glasgow a month later.[34]
This speech was also described as "an unprecedented counter-attack on the Scottish Government for its assault on the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court earlier this year."[36] The memorial lecture by Lord Hope of Craighead contains key passages as though hearsay from the mouth of the recently deceased Lord Rodger of Earlsferry either as from a private conversation (no public trace of the alleged views being known) or as Lord Hope of Craighead's anticipation of what Lord Rodger of Earlsferry would have said.[37]
2012, 2013: apparent bias on judicial selection panel: Baroness Hale of Richmond
Despite the serious professional differences and disparaging personal remarks regarding Baroness Hale of Richmond (see below under Lord Hope of Craighead's anti-women's agenda stance), Lord Hope of Craighead failed to recuse himself from selection panels for important judicial appointments (1) in 2012 for the position of President of the Supreme Court, and (2) in 2013 on Lord Hope of Craighead's own retirement for the position of Deputy President of the Supreme Court.[38] For each of these positions a small number of candidates were interviewed, including in both cases Baroness Hale of Richmond, who was a very senior justice whose appointment to the highest court dated from the pre-Supreme Court House of Lords. The UK Commission for Judicial Appointments did not make these specific appointments but in cases where they do appoint, they are obliged to "operate in a way that is fair and transparent."[39]
2019: Lord Hope of Craighead's anti-women's agenda stance
Long-standing fundamental differences of opinion and perspective with Supreme Court colleague Baroness Hale of Richmond, the first and at the time only female member of the Court, were revealed by Lord Hope of Craighead's diaries1996-2009 and following.[40] This provoked a "head on" response from Baroness Hale of Richmond in a major public lecture (at Girton College, Cambridge) in which she defended her view that women were equal to men, deserved the same rights and had a different perspective due to their different life experiences.[41] She responded to Lord Hope of Craighead's accusation of her having an "agenda": "So why is that ‘an agenda’? Quite simply, because we have not yet achieved the equality we seek in the law, let alone in life."[42] As at 2024 there has been no public apology from Lord Hope of Craighead, and no public rapprochement on this issue.
2020: allegations by Lord Hope of Craighead of judicial gerrymandering
Lord Hope of Craighead's diaries have been analysed by academic writer Lewis Graham. He highlights three incidents as described by the diary writer as together establishing a "deeply concerning" possibility and pattern of judges being included or excluded from hearing a case based on outcomes to be expected if they were to sit on specific important cases. Graham cites consideration by Hope of excluding Northern Irish Lord Kerr from a devolution case; successful lobbying, according to Lord Hope of Craighead, by Lord Hoffmann to exclude Baroness Hale of Richmond from a Jamaican death penalty appeal; and Lord Judge asking, according to Lord Hope of Craighead, to be included on a miscarriage of justice case in order to further his pre-existing views. Whilst accepting that the truth of Lord Hope of Craighead's account could be doubted, Graham observed that the mere possibility of it being correct "strikes at the heart of judicial neutrality and procedural fairness".[43]
2021: support for trade isolation of "genocidal" regimes
Lord Hope of Craighead was lauded by Iain Duncan Smith in his published attack on the Chinese government. Duncan Smith noted Lord Hope of Craighead's contribution of support in January 2021 to an amendment to the Trade Act 2021 whereby the government would be required to ensure "that the UK does not trade with genocidal regimes. Importantly, with the United Nations having shown itself incapable of making such decisions, the determination of whether genocide has taken place would be made by the High Court of England and Wales."[44]
2023: public stance against Scottish transgender legal changes
In January 2023 Lord Hope of Craighead was widely reported for spontaneously intervening publicly against proposals by the Scottish government to liberalise conditions for changes in the legal status of transgender people.[45][46] Asked about Lord Hope of Craighead's suggestion that legal challenge to a Westminster government veto would be a waste of money, Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf stated that it was not a waste of money because he was "not prepared to accept a Westminster veto over legislation that was passed by a majority".[47]
2024: counterattack by senior judiciary on Lord Hope's Diaries
In 2024 the Society of Legal Scholars published the results of an academic investigation by way of semi-structured interviews given by 13 very senior judicial figures from across the United Kingdom, some attributed and some anonymously.[48] The actions of Lord Hope of Craighead in disclosing judicial panel deliberations was a focus of the study. The disclosures by Lord Hope of Craighead were widely condemned by the interviewees as a transgression due to breach of collegiality or loyalty to other judges, and as constituting inappropriate conduct from a former judge. Additionally, the publishing of confidential deliberations was widely seen as potentially threatening “ the procedural and institutional legitimacy of the court.”[49] Only one person, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood, regarded Lord Hope of Craighead's disclosures as defensible.[50]
2024: intervention against the Scottish Government position on hate law
Lord Hope of Craighead in April 2024 gave an interview to the Times criticising the Scottish Government’s new law in the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act.[51] The Act was highly controversial.[52] The new law was introduced following independent review recommendations by Lord Bracadale.[53] The purpose of the Act was to criminalise stirring up hatred towards vulnerable people and towards minority groups within society. Police Scotland maintained they were not adversely impacted by coping with the change, and would not be diverted from attending to serious crime.[54][55] Lord Hope of Craighead claimed that the police carried an extraordinary burden and were being deluged. He is reported as attacking the Act and claiming it should be repealed.[56][57] He is also reported as accusing the Scottish Government of gesture politics.[58]Angela Constance, the Scottish justice secretary, maintained that the Act was necessary.[59][60] Lord Hope of Craighead had at the material time no responsibilities in respect of Police Scotland, or ongoing administration of justice in Scotland.
2024: intervention in party political strife in England over Rwanda deportation proposals
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, on its second attempt to establish a deportation scheme to Rwanda for illegal migrants to the UK, faced determined opposition on the issue from the Labour party.[61] On 20 March 2024, Lord Hope of Craighead, as an independent peer (no longer leader of the cross-bench peers) successfully moved in the House of Lords an amendment of his own to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill whereby implementation of the contested legislation would be delayed pending the decision of a proposed panel of experts tasked with deciding whether Rwanda satisfied certain safeguarding criteria.[62][63][64] The amendment was removed by the House of Commons on Monday 15 April 2024 but reinstated in substance once again by the House of Lords on Wednesday 17 April 2024.[65] Speaking on the BBC radio programme “Today” on 18 April 2024, Lord Hope of Craighead defended his intervention on the basis that he was seeking to correct a defect in the legislation.[66]
The Lord Hope of Craighead became Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde in 1998 and was appointed a Fellow in 2000. He stepped down as Chancellor in October 2013.[68] He was awarded an honoraryLL.D. by the university in 1993, and by the University of Aberdeen in 1991 and the University of Edinburgh in 1995.
On St Andrew's Day, 30 November 2009, Lord Hope of Craighead was appointed to the Order of the Thistle by Queen Elizabeth II.[69] The Order of the Thistle is the highest chivalric honour in Scotland. In the UK as a whole it is second only to the Order of the Garter amongst chivalric orders. The order honours Scottish men and women who have held public office or who have contributed in some way to national life.[70] Lord Hope of Craighead represented the Order at the 2023 Coronation.[71]
Coat of arms of David Hope, Baron Hope of Craighead
Crest
A broken terrestrial sphere Proper charged with an anchor Gules surmounted by a rainbow Proper.
Escutcheon
Azure on a chevron Or between three bezants a bay leaf between two quill pens Vert.
^The impact of Europe on Criminal Justice in Scotland: The role of the UK Supreme Court (The Lord Rodger of Earlsferry Memorial Lecture) 19 November 2011
^"For obvious reasons I do not wish to put my own views on record, but I can tell you what I think his views would have been." (page 23 of the speech.)
^At page 17, Mallory, C. and Tyrrell, H., 2024. The Extrajudicial Voice. Legal Studies, 44(1), pp.1-20
^S Brown Second Helpings (London: Marble Hill, 2021) p 140 as cited at page 18 in Mallory, C. and Tyrrell, H., 2024. The Extrajudicial Voice. Legal Studies, 44(1), pp.1-20