UK Supreme Court Blog

EDITORS: Dan Tench, Emma Cross, Zainab Hodgson, Francesca Knight, James Warshaw and Natalie Haefner (CMS)
Hugh Tomlinson KC, Matthew Ryder KC, Dévante Gravesande-Smith and Rebecca Khan (Matrix)

Lord Rodger of Earlsferry is the fourth most senior Justice in the UK Supreme Court.  He is also one of two Scottish Justices in the UK Supreme Court (with Lord Hope being the other).

Alan Ferguson Rodger was educated at the Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow, before going on to complete an MA and LLB at Glasgow University.  Lord Rodger then studied at New College, Oxford where he gained an MA (by decree) and D.Phil.  He went on to become Dyke Junior Research Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford in 1969 to 1970, and a Fellow of New College between 1970 and 1972. 

In 1974 Lord Rodger returned to Scotland where he was called to the Bar aged 30.  He was clerk of the Faculty of Advocates from 1976 to 1979, and a member of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland between 1981 and 1984.  In 1985 he took silk only 11 years after being called. 

However, after this, Lord Rodger spent little time practising at the private Senior bar and instead went into Government service as a prosecutor.  He was Advocate Depute between 1985 and 1988, before being appointed Solicitor General for Scotland in 1989.  He was promoted to Lord Advocate in 1992 when he also became a life peer (Baron Rodger of Earlsferry).

In 1995, Lord Rodger was appointed as Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland.  He became Lord Justice General of Scotland and Lord President of the Court of Session in 1996, a post that he remained in until 2001 when he became a Lord Appeal in Ordinary.  On 1 October 2009, Lord Rodger became one of the twelve Justices of the United Kingdom Supreme Court.

Lord Rodger’s Honours are many and varied, and include being appointed as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1991, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1992, Honorary Bencher of the Inn of Northern Ireland in 1998 and Honorary Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2008, to name but a few.  He has also received honorary degrees from the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

A Presbyterian, Lord Rodger enjoys walking and is a member of the Atheneaum Club in Pall Mall.  He also has a particular interest in Roman Law, and has written numerous articles on the topic.  Other publications of his include Owners and Neighbours in Roman Law (1972), Mapping the Law (2006), and The Courts, The Church and The Constitution (2008).