Toulson Law Lecture 2025

Patrick Stewart Hodge, Lord Hodge, was appointed Deputy President of the Supreme Court in January 2020. He was originally appointed as a Justice on 1 October 2013.

Lord Hodge was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1983 and appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1996. From 1997 to 2003, he was a part time Law Commissioner at the Scottish Law Commission.

From 2000 to 2005 he was a Judge of the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey, and Procurator to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He was a Senator of the College of Justice between 2005 and 2013. In that role he was a Commercial Judge and the Scottish Judge in Exchequer Causes. He also served as one of the Scottish Intellectual Property Judges and as a Judge in the Lands Valuation Appeal Court.

The University of Surrey School of Law is honoured to host the annual Toulson Law Lecture in memory of Lord Roger Toulson, a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey School of Law. Lord Toulson was notable for his superlative career at the Bar and on the bench. He was one of Britain’s foremost lawyers, and an intellectual leader within the Supreme Court.

He excelled in more than one area of the law and was well regarded for his work in criminal law, which had a major influence at the Law Commission, and in the senior courts in England and Wales. He published influential works in a number of areas including the law of complicity and the law of confidentiality. More generally, he was a defender of the importance of common law development, in the interests of human rights and dignity.

Now in it's 6th year, the Toulson Law Lecture has been given by distinguished Justices including Lord Neuberger, Baroness Hale and the Rt Hon Lord Burrows.