The Vice-President of the Civil Division is a Court of Appeal Judge who assists the

Master of the Rolls The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Head of Civil Justice. As a judge, the Master of ...

in leading the Civil Division of the

Court of Appeal of England and Wales The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and second in the legal system of England and Wales only to ...

. The power to appoint a vice-president was created by the

Senior Courts Act 1981 The Senior Courts Act 1981 (c.54), originally named the Supreme Court Act 1981, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act prescribes the structure and jurisdictions of the Senior Courts of England and Wales (previously known as ...

, but was not exercised until

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers Nicholas Addison Phillips, Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers, (born 21 January 1938) is a British former senior judge. Phillips was the inaugural President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, holding office between October 2009 and Oc ...

was appointed

in 2000. Because Lord Phillips was in the process of completing the inquiry into the

bovine spongiform encephalopathy Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of ...

(BSE) outbreak, he appointed Sir Martin Nourse the first vice-president so he could serve as Acting Master of the Rolls. Lord Phillips opted to appoint a successor on Sir Martin Nourse's retirement the following year to deputise when he was abroad. Sir Simon Brown took up the office on the condition that he have no duties unless Lord Phillips was in fact out of the country. The next holder, Sir Henry Brooke expanded his duties to include liaising with the Court of Appeal office, the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Bar Pro Bono Unit and the Personal Support Unit; editing the Annual Review; taking a lead on the court's information technology efforts; leading the team dealing with asylum work; and overseeing the editing of the Asylum Bench Book and the Court of Appeal Bench Book. Since then, successive Lords and Lady Justices have filled the position.

List of vice-presidents

*c. 6 June 2000: Sir Martin Nourse *January 2001: Sir Simon Brown *October 2003: Sir Henry Brooke *1 October 2006: Sir Mark Waller *6 May 2010: Sir Maurice Kay *1 October 2014: Sir Martin Moore-Bick *7 December 2016: Dame Elizabeth Gloster *16 July 2018: Sir Nicholas Underhill

Notes

References

Court of Appeal (England and Wales) {{England-law-stub