The Right Honourable The Lord Steyn PC |
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Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | |
In office 11 January 1995 – 1 October 2005 |
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Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Succeeded by | The Lord Mance |
Personal details | |
Born |
Johan van Zyl Steyn 15 August 1932 Cape Town, South Africa |
Nationality | British/South African |
Occupation | Judge |
Profession | Barrister |
Johan van Zyl Steyn, Baron Steyn, PC (born 15 August 1932) is a South African/British jurist, and until September 2005 a Law Lord. He now sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1932 he studied Law at the University of Stellenbosch before reading English as a Rhodes Scholar at University College, Oxford. He was called to the Bar in South Africa in 1958 and appointed senior counsel of the Supreme Court of South Africa in 1970.
As a result of his opposition to apartheid in his native South Africa, he settled in the UK in 1973 joining the English Bar and building a distinguished international commercial law practice. He married Susan Leonore in 1977, having two sons and two daughters from a previous marriage to Jean Pollard. Now he has seven grandchildren (from his first marriage) and has three from his step children (from his second marriage). He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1979 and was appointed a High Court Judge in 1985, receiving the customary knighthood, a surprise appointment by the then Conservative Lord Chancellor Lord Hailsham. He was served as presiding judge of the Northern Circuit from 1989–1991 and was appointed Lord Justice of Appeal in 1992.