Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
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The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers is a socialist and legal campaigning organisation in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1930 to provide legal support to the then Labour government. The Society was named after Viscount Haldane, a Liberal and subsequently Labour Party politician, who had been Lord Chancellor in H. H. Asquith's government from 1912 to 1915 and subsequently in 1924 during the first ever Labour administration. [1]
Members have included Stafford Cripps, Clement Attlee and John Platts-Mills.
Vice-Presidents and officers have included Geoffrey Bindman,[2] Liz Davies, Anthony Gifford, 6th Baron Gifford, Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, John Hendy, Baron Hendy, David Turner-Samuels, Imran Khan, Louise Christian and Gareth Peirce.
the current leader of the British Labour Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Keir Starmer belonged to the group from the 1980s and served as the group's secretary before he left the organisation in 2008 upon his appointment as Director of Public Prosecutions.[3][4]
It is now politically independent, unlike the Society of Labour Lawyers, which is affiliated to the Labour Party, and was formed after the society split in 1949 over the question of membership for members of the Communist Party.[5]
Personnel
[edit]Its current[when?] chair is Declan Owens and its President is Michael Mansfield.[6]
Affiliations
[edit]On the international level it is a member of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and European Democratic Lawyers.
Archives
[edit]Some of its records are held by The National Archives (United Kingdom).[7]
References
[edit]- ^ "Origins". Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
- ^ https://www.haldane.org/officers
- ^ https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/obiter/legal-comrades-show-starmer-the-red-card/5107377.article
- ^ https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/sir-keir-starmer-censured-agm-haldane-society-socialist-lawyers
- ^ "Post WWII: Progress vs. Red-Baiting". Haldane Society. 5 November 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
- ^ "Officers and Exec". Retrieved 24 December 2014.
- ^ "The Discovery Service". The National. Retrieved 23 August 2023.