Lord Kilbrandon

Lawyer and Constitutional Reformer | Number 32

Lord Kilbrandon (1906-1989) was born Charles Shaw. He served as Sheriff of Argyll and Bute and later Perth and Angus before becoming a judge in 1959. He chaired the Scottish Law Commission.

He made two very significant contributions as a constitutional reformer. The first was in chairing the Royal Commission on the Constitution set up by Prime Minister Harold Wilson in the early 1970s to consider constitutional changes in all parts of the UK. The majority report completed in 1973 - there were two dissenting members - recommended the setting up of a Scottish assembly. The following referendum in 1976 failed to attract enough yes votes to establish the assembly. But his work paved the way for renewed campaigning in the 1990s, with far greater powers available to the Scottish Parliament when it was set up in 1999.

He also recommended major changes replacing court interventions in Scotland in children's lives with the system of childrens hearings which operates to this day. Drawing on a welfare model, children's hearings deal both with children who have committed offences and those who are in need of care and protection. Panel members are drawn from local communities.

You can read in the story section about a party he threw in 1947....