Robert Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley

The Right Honourable The Lord Goff of Chieveley PC DCL FBA
The Lord Goff of Chieveley
Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
In office 1 October 1996 – 30 September 1998
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	The Lord Keith of Kinkel
Succeeded by	The Lord Browne-Wilkinson
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
In office 6 February 1986 – 30 September 1998
Succeeded by	The Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough
Personal details
Born	Robert Lionel Archibald Goff 12 November 1926
Nationality	British
Alma mater	New College, Oxford
Occupation	Judge
Profession	Barrister

Robert Lionel Archibald Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley, PC, DCL, FBA (born 12 November 1926)^[1] is a retired British judge.

Life

Eton College

Lord Goff, High Steward of the University of Oxford, retired in 1998 as the Senior Law Lord after more than a decade as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lord) in the House of Lords. Prior to being created a Law lord and receiving a life peerage as Baron Goff of Chieveley in the County of Berkshire in 1986, Lord Goff studied at Eton College and at New College, Oxford. On 1 October 1996, The Lord Keith of Kinkel retired as Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and Lord Goff succeeded him,^[2] Lord Goff remained in the role until his own retirement.

He served in the army and as a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, practised as a barrister and Queen's Counsel, and was appointed to the High Court in 1975 and to the Court of Appeal in 1982. Lord Goff, co-author of Goff & Jones, The Law of Restitution, is the acknowledged father of English restitution law, and has served on many important cases in the House of Lords

He is the President of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, a patron of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal,^[3] and was awarded the Grand Gross (First Class) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribution to British awareness of German law.

Important judgments

Lord Goff gave many important judgments, including his judgments in the following cases:

• Barclays Bank Ltd v W J Simms, Son and Cooke (Southern) Ltd [1980] 1 QB 677, described as "the Donoghue v Stevenson of restitution for mistake."^[4]
• BP Exploration Co (Libya) Ltd v Hunt [1979] 1 WLR 783
• Elanco Products Ltd v Mandops (Agrochemical Specialists) Ltd [1979] FSR 46
• Daulia Ltd v Four Millbank Nominees Ltd [1978] Ch 231
• Cambridge Water Co Ltd v Eastern Counties Leather plc [1994] 1 All ER 53 – explained the relationship between Private Nuisance and Rylands v Fletcher
• Collins v Wilcock [1984] 3 All ER 374 – In his judgement in this case he defines both battery and assault which has become the accepted definitions.
• Spiliada v Cansulex Ltd [1987] AC 460
• Attorney-General v Observer Ltd. and Others. [1990] 1 AC 109
• R v R [1992] 1 AC 599
• Lipkin Gorman v Karpnale Ltd [1992] 4 All ER 331
• R v Gough [1993] 2 All ER 724
• Lord Napier v Kershaw [1993] AC 713
• The Pioneer Container [1994] 2 AC 324
• Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale v Islington LBC [1996] AC 669 (dissenting on the question of the award of compound interest) "No genetic engineering is required, only that the warm sun of judicial creativity should exercise its benign influence rather than remain hidden behind the dark clouds of legal history."
• Henderson v Merrett Syndicates Ltd [1995] 2 AC 145
• Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd [1997] A.C. 655 – leading case on Private Nuisance
• White v Jones [1995] AC 207
• Kleinwort Benson Ltd v Lincoln City Council [1999] 2 AC 349
• Re Pinochet [1998] UKHL
• Attorney General v Blake [2001] 1 AC 268

See also

• House of Lords
• Restitution

References

1. "Birthday's today". The Telegraph. 12 November 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2014. Lord Goff of Chieveley, a former Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, is 87
2. "State Intelligence". London Gazette. 4 October 1996. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
3. "Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal – Board of Patrons". Retrieved 19 March 2009.
4. Virgo, Graham (1999). The Principles of the Law of Restitution. Clarendon Press. p. 158. ISBN 0-19-876377-8.