Iain Bonomy, Lord Bonomy, (born 15 January 1946)
/ref> is a former

Senator of the College of Justice The senators of the College of Justice are judges of the College of Justice, a set of legal institutions involved in the administration of justice in Scotland. There are three types of senator: Lords of Session (judges of the Court of Session); ...

, a judge of the Supreme Courts of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, sitting in the

High Court of Justiciary The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent former Sheriff Cou ...

and the

Inner House The Inner House is the senior part of the Court of Session, the supreme civil court in Scotland; the Outer House forms the junior part of the Court of Session. It is a court of appeal and a court of first instance. The chief justice is th ...

of the

Court of Session The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland and constitutes part of the College of Justice; the supreme criminal court of Scotland is the High Court of Justiciary. The Court of Session sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh ...

from 2010 to 2012. From 2004 to 2009, he was a Judge of the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

Early life

Born on 15 January 1946 in

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

, Bonomy attended Dalziel High School and the

School of Law A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

of the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, graduating

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

in 1968. In 2006, he was awarded an honorary

LL.D. Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...

by the university. He undertook his apprenticeship as a solicitor at

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...

Town Council between 1968 – 1970, before moving into practice with Ballantyne and Copland in Motherwell, rising to become a partner. In 1983, he left to begin

devilling Devilling is the period of training, pupillage or junior work undertaken by a person wishing to become an advocate in one of the English-speaking common law systems of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, and Australia. Etymology While there ...

, and in 1984 was admitted to the

Faculty of Advocates The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. The Faculty of Advocates is a constitu ...

, gaining

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

status in 1993. From 1990 to 1996, he served as an

Advocate Depute The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is the independent public prosecution service for Scotland, and is a Ministerial Department of the Scottish Government. The department is headed by His Majesty's Lord Advocate, who under the S ...

, and in 1996 served as Senior Counsel to the Dunblane Inquiry.

Judicial career

In 1997, he was appointed a

, a judge of the

and

, Scotland's supreme courts, taking the judicial title, Lord Bonomy. He sat primarily on civil and criminal cases at first instance, although occasionally sat on appellate business. A tabloid newspaper nicknamed him "Judge Dread" when he jailed a

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

-dealer for ten years for failing within twenty-four hours to name his supplier.Scottish judge will oversee run-up to Karadzic trial in The Hague
/ref> In 2001, he led a review for the Scottish Executive of the Practices and Procedure of the High Court; the report, ''Improving Practice – the 2002 Review of the Practices and Procedures of the High Court of Justiciary'' was published in December 2002. In 2004, he was appointed to the

(ICTY), sitting as a judge on many high-profile cases, and presiding over the trial of former Serbian President

Milan Milutinović Milan Milutinović ( sr-cyr, Милан Милутиновић; born 19 December 1942) is a Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia from 1997 to 2002. He served as Secretary for Education and Science of Serbia (1977–82), Dir ...

. In August 2008, he was appointed to preside over preparations for the trial of captured former

Bosnian Serb The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sr-Cyrl, Срби у Босни и Херцеговини, Srbi u Bosni i Hercegovini) are one of the three constitutive nations (state-forming nations) of the country, predominantly residing in the politi ...

leader

Radovan Karadžić Radovan Karadžić ( sr-cyr, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Bosnian Serb politician, psychiatrist and poet. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Tr ...

. He resigned from the ICTY in 2009 for personal reasons, and was succeeded by

Howard Morrison Sir Howard Leslie Morrison (18 August 1935 – 24 September 2009) was a New Zealand entertainer. From 1964 until his death in 2009, he was one of New Zealand's leading television and concert performers. Early life Of Māori (Te Arawa), Irish ...

. He was appointed to the

of the Court of Session on 16 August 2010 and appointed to the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

in October 2010. He retired in 2012. He was appointed as chairman of the Infant Cremation Commission in April 2013, whose report was published in June 2014. On 6 February 2020 he was appointed as a Judge to the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT). The IRMCT is a small, temporary tribunal continuing the work of the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonomy, Iain Living people 1949 births People from Motherwell People educated at Dalziel High School Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish solicitors Members of the Faculty of Advocates Scottish King's Counsel 20th-century King's Counsel Senators of the College of Justice Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia judges British judges of United Nations courts and tribunals