Anthony Maurice Honoré, (30 March 1921 – 26 February 2019) was a British lawyer and

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

, known for his work on

ownership Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...

, causation and

Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Just ...

.John Gardne
''Tony Honoré as Teacher and Mentor: A Personal Memoir''
; read 1 April 2014.

Biography

Honoré was born in London but was brought up in South Africa. He served in the South African Infantry during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and was severely wounded in the Battle of Alamein. After the war he continued his studies at

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at t ...

, and he lived and taught in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

for seventy years, including periods as a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

The Queen's College The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

and then of New College.Profile o
Tony Honré
All Souls College website, Oxford; read 1 April 2014. Between 1971 and 1988 he was Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford and a Fellow of

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

;Profile o
Tony Honoré
University of Oxford website, read 1 April 2014.Daniel Visser and Max Loubser (2011)
Thinking about Law: Essays for Tony Honore
'; Siber Ink, Westlake (South Africa). read 1 April 2014. for nearly 30 years after retiring from his Chair, he taught seminars in Jurisprudence for the BCL jointly with John Gardner. Honoré was a close associate of

H. L. A. Hart Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart (18 July 190719 December 1992), known simply as H. L. A. Hart, was an English legal philosopher. He was Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford University and the Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford. His ...

. They jointly wrote ''Causation in the Law'' (Oxford, 1st ed. 1959, 2nd 1985) in 1953-8 and Honoré had some influence on Hart's ''The Concept of Law'' (Oxford, 1st ed. 1961, 2nd 1994). A number of his philosophical papers are collected in ''Making Law Bind'' (Oxford, 1987) and ''Responsibility and Fault'' (Oxford, 1999) and his contributions to legal philosophy and Roman law, which range widely, include 16 books and more than a 100 articles published over six decades. Honoré was an honorary Q.C. and Bencher of

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, a member of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and Bavarian Academies and of the

International Academy of Comparative Law International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

. In South Africa, his standing has been recognised by the award of honorary degrees from the Universities of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronounc ...

and Cape Town. When receiving this last degree, in 1990, he had the opportunity to give an address. He used this opportunity to point to the parallel between the extension of citizenship to all free people in the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

, regardless of race, sex or religion, by

Caracalla Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname "Caracalla" () was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor S ...

in 211 AD, and the extension of citizenship to the whole of the South African population. This he foresaw would need an adjustment of the legal system, and he suggested a constitutional court to carry it through with a parallel to the composition of the

German Constitutional Court The Federal Constitutional Court (german: link=no, Bundesverfassungsgericht ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its inc ...

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

approved of this. It was put into practice in 1995, and has been a success. He delivered the

Hamlyn Lectures The Hamlyn Lectures are a series of public lectures A public lecture (also known as an open lecture) is one means employed for educating the public in the arts and sciences. The Royal Institution has a long history of public lectures and demonstr ...

(1982), the Blackstone and H. L. A. Hart lectures, the J. H. Gray lectures at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...

and the Maccabaean lecture in Jurisprudence at the British Academy. Three

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the ...

en have been published in his honour. * Neil MacCormick and Peter Birks (eds., 1985) ''The Legal Mind: Essays for Tony Honoré'';Neil MacCormick and Peter Birks (Eds., 1985) ''The Legal Mind: Essays for Tony Honoré''; Claredons Press, Oxford. * Peter Cane and John Gardner (eds., 2001) ''Relating to Responsibility: Essays in Honor of Tony Honoré on his 80th Birthday''.Peter Cane and John Gardner (Eds., 2001) ''Relating to Responsibility: Essays in Honor of Tony Honoré on his 80th Birthday''; Oxford: Hart Publishing Co., * Daniel Visser and Max Loubser (eds., 2011) ''Thinking about Law: Essays for Tony Honore''; On 17 September 2004 he received

honorary citizenship Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honour usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...

from the then mayor of

San Ginesio San Ginesio is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Macerata in the Italian region Marche, located about southwest of Ancona and about southwest of Macerata. As of December 31, 2004, it had a population of 3,872 and an area of .All d ...

, Pietro Enrico Parrucci.

List of publications

;Books * ''Gaius: a biography'' (Oxford, 1962) * ''Tribonian'' (London, 1978) * ''Sex Law in England'' (London: Duckworth, 1978) * ''Emperor and Lawyers: with a paligenesia of third-century imperial rescripts 193–305 AD'' (London, 1st ed. 1981; Oxford, 2nd ed. 1994) * ''Ulpian: pioneer of human rights'' (Oxford, 1st ed. 1982; 2nd ed. 2002) * ''The Quest for Security: Employees, Tenants, Wives'' (London: Stevens, 1982) * ''Causation in the Law'' (Oxford, 1st ed. 1959; 2nd 1985) – with

* ''Making Law Bind'' (Oxford, 1987) * ''Concordance to the Digest Jurists'' (Oxford: OMP, 1980) – with J. Menner * ''About Law: an introduction'' (Oxford, 1995) * ''Law in the Crisis of the Empire 379–455 AD: the Theodosian dynasty and its quaestors'' (Oxford, 1998) * ''Responsibility and Fault'' (Oxford, 1999) * ''Justinian's Digest: character and compilation'' (Oxford, 2010) ;Articles * "Responsibility and luck: the moral basis of strict liability" (1988) 104 ''Law Quarterly Review'' 530

References

External links

Tony Honoré 1921– 2019
Memorial notice from the Oxford Law faculty, by John Gardner. from 7 March 2019.
link

Tony Honoré (F, 1938) – RIP
Memorial from the

Diocesan College The Diocesan College (commonly known as Bishops) is a private, English medium, boarding and day high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The school was established on ...

alumni network site from 26 February 2019.
Tony Honoré's web site
Includes several online papers and brief biographical details. {{DEFAULTSORT:Honore, Tony 1921 births 2019 deaths Philosophers of law Members of Lincoln's Inn Alumni of New College, Oxford Fellows of New College, Oxford Fellows of The Queen's College, Oxford Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford University of Cape Town alumni Regius Professors of Civil Law (University of Oxford) Honorary King's Counsel Fellows of the British Academy South African Army officers British expatriates in South Africa Academics of the University of Nottingham