Derek Schofield

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The Hon Mr Justice Derek Schofield is the current Chief Justice of Gibraltar. He was previously the Senior Judge in the Cayman Islands, and a high court judge in Kenya. He is married to human rights lawyer Anne Schofield, and has two children.

He is known for his strong support of human rights and the independence of the judiciary. This forced him to resign as high court judge and move to leave Kenya with his family in 1987 when he refused to be influenced by strong political interference in a case.

During his term as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar, he has made several significant decisions, including the ruling it is unconstitutional for jury service to be compulsory only for men.

[edit] Controversies

Since Schofield's appointment as Chief Justice of Gibraltar, he has been involved in high profile disputes with Chief Minister Peter Caruana.

Schofield has been publicly critical of the Judicial Reforms introduced by the GSD administration through the new constitution of Gibraltar and the Judicial Services Act. These criticisms centred on the removal of the status as head of the judiciary from the the Chief Justice and the creation of a Judicial Services Commission to oversee the judiciary, which it is claimed can be too easily be controlled by the executive and thus poses a threat to judicial independence. Following the introduction of the constitution and Judicial Services Act, Schofield launched a judicial review into the changes and cancelling the ceremonial opening of the legal year. The dispute escalated further to involve leading members of the Gibraltar Bar Association who attempted to pass a vote of no confidence in the Chief Justice and with Anne Schofield launching a libel lawsuit against Bar Association chairman James Neish for allegedly defamatory statements that he made in correspondence with her.

On 17th September 2007 Schofield was suspended on full pay pending the investigation and resolution of the situation.