Michael Davies (judge)

Sir Alfred William Michael Davies (29 July 1921 - 5 September 2006) was a British barrister, and was a High Court Judge for 18 years, from 1973 to 1991. He was one of the first judges appointed specifically to hear defamation cases, one of the few areas of civil law in England in which a jury remains the tribunal of fact, and was in charge of managing the list of libel cases from 1988 to 1991. In retirement, he conducted a visitor's inquiry into allegations of poor academic standards at University College, Swansea in 1992 to 1993, and was instrumental in the foundation of the Expert Witness Institute in 1996.

Davies was born in Birmingham, He was educated at King Edward VI College, Stourbridge. He read law at Birmingham University.

Davies was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1948, where he became a bencher in 1972 and was Treasurer in 1991. He practised on the Midland Circuit, and became a QC in 1964. He led the prosecution of Buster Edwards in 1966 for his part in the Great Train Robbery three years earlier, and of William Waite, the "gentle poisoner" who had killed his wife. He was the Leader of the Midland Circuit and a member of the Bar Council from 1968 to 1971, and then Joint Leader of the Midland and Oxford Circuit from 1971 to 1973.

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