Sir Donald Neil MacCormick (27 May 1941 – 5 April 2009) was a Scottish legal philosopher and politician. He was Regius Professor of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

from 1972 until 2008. He was a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

1999–2004, member of the Convention on the Future of Europe, and officer of the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

Life and academic career

MacCormick was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

on 27 May 1941, the son of one of the SNP's founders, John MacCormick. He was educated at the High School of Glasgow. He graduated MA in philosophy and English literature at 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 ...

, before benefiting from a Snell Exhibition and taking the BA in jurisprudence at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

. At Oxford, MacCormick came under the influence of Professor H. L. A. Hart, and developed an interest in legal philosophy. In 1982 he was awarded the research degree of LLD by the

. MacCormick was a lecturer in jurisprudence at the School of Law, University of Dundee (which was attached to University of St Andrews at that time) from 1965 to 1967. Following this, he was a fellow and tutor in jurisprudence, Balliol College, Oxford 1968–1972, and thereafter held the Regius Chair of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at the

. He was also Leverhulme Research Professor at Edinburgh from 1997 to 1999, and from 2004 to 2008. In addition, he held the position of Dean of Law Faculty between 1973 and 1976, and was sometime Provost of the Faculty Group of Law and Social Science, and Vice-Principal for International Affairs. Professor MacCormick retired from the Regius Chair on 1 February 2008 after completing 36 years as professor (and later senior professor) at the University of Edinburgh. He was accorded with the honour of a series of lectures in his name by the university's School of Law and delivered the School of Law's opening Tercentenary Lecture, introduced by former Lord President Lord Cullen, on 18 January 2007. He gave his final lecture as Regius Professor, entitled 'Just Law', on Monday 28 January 2008. He continued thereafter in his role as President of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. He was president of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. MacCormick was a member of the Broadcasting Council for Scotland, of the

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, of the Research Council of the

European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral research-intensive university and an intergovernmental organisation with juridical personality, established by its founding member states to contribu ...

, and of the

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, as well as of various government departmental committees inquiring into matters of public concern.

Political career

MacCormick stood for the SNP in the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

and

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

, coming in fourth place both times. He stood for

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute (; , ) is one of 32 unitary authority, unitary council areas of Scotland, council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

and came second. In September 1998 he was selected by delegates at the SNP's conference as a candidate for the 1999 European Parliament elections. He was elected a

, taking a leave of absence from the University of Edinburgh. Professor MacCormick was a member of the Convention on the Future of Europe from 2002 to 2003, drafting the proposed Constitutional Treaty for the European Union. He was voted Scottish Euro MP of the Year in 2001, 2002 and 2003 at the Scottish Politician of the Year Awards, and retired from elected office in 2004 to complete his Leverhulme Research Professorship at Edinburgh. He was elected vice president of the SNP in 1999 and remained in the position until 2004. In 2007 MacCormick was appointed as a special advisor on Europe to the newly elected SNP-led

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

Academic works

MacCormick wrote numerous journal articles and books, concentrating both on law in a European context and the philosophy of law. Works such as ''Legal Reasoning and Legal Theory'' (1978), ''H. L. A. Hart'' (1981), ''Legal Right and Social Democracy: Essays in Legal and Political Philosophy'' (1984), ''An Institutional Theory of Law: New Approaches to Legal Positivism'' (with O. Weinberger) (1986), ''Questioning Sovereignty: Law, State, and Nation in the European Commonwealth'' (1999), ''Rhetoric and The Rule of Law'' (2005) and ''Institutions of Law'' (2007) all convey his particular brand of legal philosophy. ''Legal Reasoning and Legal Theory'' answers many of the Dworkinian critiques of the Hartian conception of law, and it is seen by some as showing a middle ground between the two. ''Questioning Sovereignty: Law, State, and Nation in the European Commonwealth'' (1999) examines the transformation of sovereignty as consequence of constitutional pluralism in the European Union. His final book was ''Practical Reason in Law and Morality'' (2008).

Honours and awards

In 1999, MacCormick was appointed

Queen'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 ...

'honoris causa', and was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2001 in recognition of services to scholarship in Law. In 2004 he was a recipient of the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Royal Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement. He was an honorary fellow of

and the recipient of honorary degrees from Queen's University (Canada),

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

(Sweden), University of Macerata (Italy) and Saarland University (Germany), as well as from the University of Glasgow, Queen Margaret University and the University of Edinburgh.

Illness and death

Just after retiring from his chair at the University of Edinburgh in 2008, MacCormick was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. He died on 5 April 2009.

Podcast recording

* ''Scottish Politics Today'' audio recording / podcast. Recorded on 12 October 2005, in the office of Professor Neil MacCormick at the University of Edinburgh.

References

External links

Professor Neil Walker's eulogy to Neil MacCormick
at www.law.ed.ac.uk
Edinburgh Legal Theory Research Group, Law School, University of Edinburgh

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'', 6 April 2009
Obituary
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