Arnold Duncan McNair, 1st Baron McNair (4 March 1885 – 22 May 1975) was a British jurist and judge of the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

and later the first president of the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

Early life and education

McNair was born in Highbury Fields,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The eldest son of John McNair and Jeannie Ballantyne; his mother was a teacher and his father a member of Lloyd's. McNair was educated at

Aldenham School Aldenham School is a co-educational private boarding and day school for pupils aged eleven to eighteen, located between Elstree and the village of Aldenham in Hertfordshire, England. There is also a preparatory school for pupils from the ag ...

. He left school at 17 to join his sick uncle who was a solicitor; he took his solicitor exams and qualified as a solicitor in 1906. After four years, his uncle's health improved and McNair applied to the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. He was accepted and won a classical scholarship for

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

; he took the law

tripos TRIPOS (''TRIvial Portable Operating System'') is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 a ...

in 1907 and 1908. While at Cambridge, he developed a close relationship with W. W. Buckland. He achieved a double first in both parts of the law

. From Cambridge, he took an

LLB A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

in 1909, an

LLM A large language model (LLM) is a language model trained with Self-supervised learning, self-supervised machine learning on a vast amount of text, designed for natural language processing tasks, especially Natural language generation, language g ...

in 1913, an MA in 1919 and an LLD in 1925. From 1907 to 1908 he was Secretary of

Cambridge University Liberal Club Cambridge University Liberal Association (CULA) is the student branch of the Liberal Democrats for students at the University of Cambridge. It is the successor to the Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats, which in turn was formed from the merge ...

, and in 1909 he was

President of the Cambridge Union This is a list of presidents of the Cambridge Union since its foundation in 1815. 1815–1916 It was resolved at a Private Business Meeting held on Monday, May 8, 1916, to hold no elections for terminal officers in the Easter Term, nor subsequ ...

Career

McNair moved to London to practise as a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

. However, Buckland went to London to offer McNair a lectureship and

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

ship at Caius College in 1912, which was accepted. He later became senior tutor. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he worked under the coal controller, serving as secretary to the

Sankey Commission The Coal Industry Commission Act 1919 ( 9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 1) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom, which set up a commission, led by Mr Justice Sankey (and so known as the "Sankey Commission"), to consider joint management or national ...

in 1919. In 1917, he was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

. He was reader in international law at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

from 1926 to 1927. He was appointed Tagore Professor at the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

in 1931. In 1935 he was appointed Whewell Professor of International Law at Cambridge. However, he left the chair in 1937 to become Vice-Chancellor of

Liverpool University The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University, it received Royal Charter by King Edward VII in 1903 attaining the de ...

where he remained until 1945. when he returned to Cambridge to take up the position of professor of

comparative law Comparative law is the study of differences and similarities between the law and legal systems of different countries. More specifically, it involves the study of the different legal systems (or "families") in existence around the world, includ ...

. He was offered the position of

master Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

of Caius, but declined it in favour of joining the

. His interest was in the

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

and he lectured on

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

at Cambridge, though he was most notable as an international law expert. R. Y. Jennings said McNair was of the opinion that international lawyers must first become experts in private law in order to ensure legal actions are founded in "hard law" rather than speculation.

International court appointments

McNair was elected a judge of the

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

in 1945, a post he held until 1955; he was also president of the Court from 1952 to 1955. He later served as the first President of the

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

from 1959 to 1965.

Personal life

Lord McNair married Marjorie Bailhache (1887–1971), a social worker and daughter of Sir Clement Bailhache, in 1912. They had one son and three daughters. McNair's wife died in 1971 and he in 1975, aged 90. He was succeeded in the barony by his son, Clement John McNair.

Honours

McNair was created a

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1918 and knighted and made a

King's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1943. In 1955 he was raised to the peerage as Baron McNair, of Gleniffer in the County of Renfrew. He received an honorary DCL from Oxford and LLD from the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

and

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

. He received an honorary

DLitt Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

from the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

Notes

References

* * *Remarks of Former ICJ President Stephen M. Schwebel durin
Discussion
an
Dinner
a
the 25th Anniversary Conference of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law
o
11–12 July 2008

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McNair, Arnold International law scholars McNair, Arnold Duncan McNair, 1st Baron McNair, Arnold Duncan, 1st Baron Presidents of the European Court of Human Rights People educated at Aldenham School McNair, Arnold Duncan McNair, 1st Baron Members of Gray's Inn McNair, Arnold Duncan McNair, 1st Baron 20th-century English judges Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Vice-chancellors of the University of Liverpool Whewell Professors of International Law British judges of United Nations courts and tribunals British judges of international courts and tribunals Hereditary barons created by Elizabeth II International Court of Justice judges