Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin Biography

Patrick Arthur Devlin, Baron Devlin, PC (25 November 1905 – 9 August 1992) was a British judge who served as a Law Lord. In 1959, he headed a Commission of Inquiry, the Devlin Commission, which reported on the State of Emergency declared by the colonial governor of Nyasaland. In 1985 he became the first British judge to write a book about a case he had presided over, the 1957 trial of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams. Devlin is also well known for his part in the debate around homosexuality in British law; in response to the Wolfenden report, he argued, contrary to H. L. A. Hart, that a common public morality should be upheld.