Kerr regarded the introduction in 1971 of internment without trial in Northern Ireland as having been "calamitous for the rule of law". However, he assessed his Troubles-era experience of the non-jury Diplock courts, introduced to prevent intimidation by paramilitaries, as broadly positive. Citing the "distinguished civil libertarian", Sir Louis Blom-Cooper, he proposed that the non-jury system (in which there was an automatic right of appeal) "was in some senses superior to the jury trial."[6]
On 29 June 2009, he was created Baron Kerr of Tonaghmore, of Tonaghmore in the County of Down, and was introduced to the House of Lords the same day. He was the last person to be appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. On 1 October 2009, he became one of the inaugural Justices of the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He was the youngest member, at age 61.[8] He was succeeded as Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland on 3 July 2009 by Sir Declan Morgan.[9]
Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore dissented from the controversial judgment of the Supreme Court in R v Gnango, in which the court held that a person could be an accessory to his own murder.[10]
Asked to specify which had been his most important case, Kerr opted for the 2018 legal challenge to Northern Ireland abortion law brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The law prohibited abortion, even in cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality, and four of the seven justices, including Lord Kerr, ruled that this made the law in Northern Ireland incompatible with human rights legislation. "One only has to read the dreadful circumstances of the young women who were courageous enough to give … an account of their experiences in order to be struck how dreadful those experiences were... It was an extremely important case and one which I was very pleased to be part of."[6]
In August 2020, it was announced that he would retire on 30 September 2020.[13]
Defence of judicial review
Following his retirement Lord Kerr defended the practice of judicial review and the £56m cost of creating the Supreme Court in Parliament Square. He could understand that ministers might be "irritated by legal challenges which may appear to them to be frivolous or misconceived", but
if we are operating a healthy democracy, what the judiciary provides is a vouching or checking mechanism for the validity [of] laws that parliament has enacted or the appropriate international treaties to which we have subscribed... the last thing we want is for government to have access to unbridled power.[11]
Personal life
Kerr married Gillian Widdowson in 1970, and the couple had two sons.
He was a Roman Catholic.[14][4][15]
Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore died in the early hours of 1 December 2020, aged 72.[16][17]
^"UK Supreme Court Judgments 26th June 2013 – Part 1". UK Supreme Court YouTube. UK Supreme Court. 26 June 2013. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2015. "The judgment in this case will be given by Lord Kerr", spoken in the presence of Lord Kerr by his colleague Lord Neuberger.
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