John Vinelott
Encyclopedia
Sir John Evelyn Vincent Vinelott (15 October 1923 – 22 May 2006) was a leading barrister
at the Chancery
bar and an English
High Court
judge
in the Chancery Division from 1978 to 1994.
He was born in Gillingham, Kent
, and studied at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham
. He started to read English at Goldsmiths, University of London, but his studies were interrupted by Second World War. He enlisted with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve before he graduated: the master-at-arms
told him that hyphenated surname ("Vine-Lott") were not used on the lower decks. He was later commissioned as a sub-lieutenant
, but retained his new unhyphenated surname. He was sent to the School of Oriental and African Studies
to learn Japanese
, and served on destroyers in the Far East, reading Japanese signals. He bought a copy of Ludwig Wittgenstein
's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
in Colombo
, which made him determined to study philosophy
after the war.
He returned to his studies at Queens' College, Cambridge
, studying philosophy under Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell
. He attended a lecture given by Karl Popper
to the Moral Sciences Club
in October 1946, "Are there philosophical problems?", which infamously turned into an argument between Popper and Wittgenstein on the nature of philosophy. The precised events are disputed: some reports say that Wittgenstein wielding a red hot
poker before storming out; others that he merely used the poker as an example in his argument. The incident has been written about in, for example, Wittgenstein's Poker.
Vinelott obtained a first class degree
. He considered an academic career, but turned to the bar
instead. He was called to the bar at Gray's Inn
in 1953, and married in 1956. He took silk
in 1968, became a bencher of Gray's Inn in 1974, and was treasurer of Gray's Inn in 1993. As a barrister, he was a leading authority on trust law
. He acted for the Official Solicitor
in the debacle of the Pentonville Five
, the five dockers' shop stewards imprisoned in July 1972 for contempt of court
for defying an order of the National Industrial Relations Court
. He appeared in court through most of 1976 in the long-running case of Tito v. Waddell, on the rights of Banaban landowners on Ocean Island
in the Pacific, and before the House of Lords
in 1977 in Gouriet
v. Union of Post Office Workers, on the ability of a private individual to force the Attorney General
to prevent a public wrong.
He declined an appointment to the Family Division
, but was appointed as a High Court judge in the Chancery Division in 1978, receiving the customary knighthood. His springer spaniel
often accompanied him in court. He gave the first-instance decisions in the tax cases of Conservative and Unionist Central Office v. Burrell in 1980, Furniss v. Dawson
in 1981, and Pepper v. Hart in 1989, and various points in the Derby v. Weldon ligitagion in 1989 to 1991 .
He was not advanced to higher office before his retirement in 1994, but subsequently sat as a deputy judge of the High Court and the Court of Appeal until 1998.
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
at the Chancery
Court of equity
A chancery court, equity court or court of equity is a court that is authorized to apply principles of equity, as opposed to law, to cases brought before it.These courts began with petitions to the Lord Chancellor of England...
bar and an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
in the Chancery Division from 1978 to 1994.
He was born in Gillingham, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, and studied at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School is a selective co-educational grammar school in Faversham, Kent, England. It was formed in 1967, when the Faversham Grammar School for Boys, the William Gibbs School for Girls and the Wreights School merged and moved into new accommodation opposite...
. He started to read English at Goldsmiths, University of London, but his studies were interrupted by Second World War. He enlisted with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve before he graduated: the master-at-arms
Master-at-arms
A master-at-arms may be a naval rating responsible for discipline and law enforcement, an army officer responsible for physical training, or a member of the crew of a merchant ship responsible for security and law enforcement.-Royal Navy:The master-at-arms is a ship's senior rating, comparable in...
told him that hyphenated surname ("Vine-Lott") were not used on the lower decks. He was later commissioned as a sub-lieutenant
Sub-Lieutenant
Sub-lieutenant is a military rank. It is normally a junior officer rank.In many navies, a sub-lieutenant is a naval commissioned or subordinate officer, ranking below a lieutenant. In the Royal Navy the rank of sub-lieutenant is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army and of...
, but retained his new unhyphenated surname. He was sent to the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
to learn Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, and served on destroyers in the Far East, reading Japanese signals. He bought a copy of Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is the only book-length philosophical work published by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his lifetime. It was an ambitious project: to identify the relationship between language and reality and to define the limits of science...
in Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
, which made him determined to study philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
after the war.
He returned to his studies at Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou , and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville...
, studying philosophy under Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
. He attended a lecture given by Karl Popper
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
to the Moral Sciences Club
Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club
The Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club, founded in October 1878, is a philosophy discussion group that meets weekly at Cambridge during term time. Speakers are invited to give a 30-minute paper, after which discussion is thrown open for several hours....
in October 1946, "Are there philosophical problems?", which infamously turned into an argument between Popper and Wittgenstein on the nature of philosophy. The precised events are disputed: some reports say that Wittgenstein wielding a red hot
Black body
A black body is an idealized physical body that absorbs all incident electromagnetic radiation. Because of this perfect absorptivity at all wavelengths, a black body is also the best possible emitter of thermal radiation, which it radiates incandescently in a characteristic, continuous spectrum...
poker before storming out; others that he merely used the poker as an example in his argument. The incident has been written about in, for example, Wittgenstein's Poker.
Vinelott obtained a first class degree
British undergraduate degree classification
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading scheme for undergraduate degrees in the United Kingdom...
. He considered an academic career, but turned to the bar
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
instead. He was called to the bar at Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
in 1953, and married in 1956. He took silk
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
in 1968, became a bencher of Gray's Inn in 1974, and was treasurer of Gray's Inn in 1993. As a barrister, he was a leading authority on trust law
Trust law
In common law legal systems, a trust is a relationship whereby property is held by one party for the benefit of another...
. He acted for the Official Solicitor
Official Solicitor
The Office of the Official Solicitor is a part of the Ministry of Justice of the Government of the United Kingdom. The Official Solicitor acts for people who, because they lack mental capacity and cannot properly manage their own affairs, are unable to represent themselves and no other suitable...
in the debacle of the Pentonville Five
Pentonville Five
The Pentonville Five were five shop stewards jailed in July 1972 by the National Industrial Relations Court for refusing to obey a court order to stop picketing of a container depot in East London....
, the five dockers' shop stewards imprisoned in July 1972 for contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
for defying an order of the National Industrial Relations Court
National Industrial Relations Court
The National Industrial Relations Court was established on 1 December 1971 under Section 99 of the Industrial Relations Act 1971. The NIRC was created by the Conservative government of Ted Heath as a way to limit the power of trades union in the United Kingdom...
. He appeared in court through most of 1976 in the long-running case of Tito v. Waddell, on the rights of Banaban landowners on Ocean Island
Ocean Island
Ocean Island is a name given to two unrelated islands in the Pacific Ocean, and one in the Southern Ocean:* Kure Atoll, the last atoll in the Hawaiian Islands chain.* Banaba Island, in Kiribati, an island mined until recently for its phosphate....
in the Pacific, and before the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
in 1977 in Gouriet
John Gouriet
Major John Prendergast Gouriet was a British Army officer, company director and political activist. He was best known as a founder of the National Association for Freedom , and for pioneering the use of legal action to oppose actions of trade unions and campaigning groups which he believed...
v. Union of Post Office Workers, on the ability of a private individual to force the Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
to prevent a public wrong.
He declined an appointment to the Family Division
Family division
Family division can refer to:* Family Division of the High Court of Justice* divorce* annulment* division of property* alimony* parental responsibility * dysfunctional familyFor an overview, please see family and family law....
, but was appointed as a High Court judge in the Chancery Division in 1978, receiving the customary knighthood. His springer spaniel
Springer Spaniel
Springer Spaniel refers to two different breeds of dogs, both of which are commonly called simply Springer Spaniel:*English Springer Spaniel*Welsh Springer Spaniel...
often accompanied him in court. He gave the first-instance decisions in the tax cases of Conservative and Unionist Central Office v. Burrell in 1980, Furniss v. Dawson
Furniss v. Dawson
Furniss v. Dawson is an important House of Lords case in the field of UK tax. Its full name is "Furniss v. Dawson D.E.R., Furniss v. Dawson G.E., Murdoch v. Dawson R.S.", and its citation is [1984] A.C. 474, or alternatively [1984] 2 W.L.R...
in 1981, and Pepper v. Hart in 1989, and various points in the Derby v. Weldon ligitagion in 1989 to 1991 .
He was not advanced to higher office before his retirement in 1994, but subsequently sat as a deputy judge of the High Court and the Court of Appeal until 1998.