Robert Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley

Robert Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley

Robert Lionel Archibald Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley, PC, FBA was an English barrister and judge. Best known for establishing unjust enrichment as a branch of English law. Goff was the original co-author of Goff & Jones, the leading English law textbook on restitution and unjust enrichment.

About Robert Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley in brief

Summary Robert Goff, Baron Goff of ChieveleyRobert Lionel Archibald Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley, PC, FBA was an English barrister and judge. He was Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, the equivalent of today’s President of the Supreme Court. Best known for establishing unjust enrichment as a branch of English law. Goff was the original co-author of Goff & Jones, the leading English law textbook on restitution and unjust enrichment, first published in 1966. He practised as a commercial barrister from 1951 to 1975, following which he began his career as a judge. In 1986, he was appointed to the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords in 1986. He has been described by Andrew Burrows as \”the greatest judge of modern times\”. Goff was born in Perthshire, Scotland, on 12 November 1926, as the second child and only son of Lionel Trevor Goff and Isobel Jane Higgon. Lionel studied at Eton College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and was commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1897. As a young officer, Lionel fought in the Second Boer War, was wounded in the Siege of Ladysmith and mentioned in dispatches. He also served in the First World War, and remained hospitalised for his wounds until 1921. Goff attended a dame school in Basingstoke until he was eight. Thereafter, he attended St Aubyns School, Rottingdean, and started atEton College in September 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War.

He left Eton in December 1944, having received a deferred offer of admission to New College, Oxford, for after he completed his military service. In 1948 he took up his place at Oxford for a two-year course at the Polych of Perugia. He then volunteered to serve in the counter-force at Windsor Castle, where he remained until July 1948. During this period, he spent his time exploring northern Italy, skiing and pursuing cultural interests, while introducing men under his command to Michelangelo’s Piero della Francesca’s Polyptych. On occasions, he would combine communications posts with visits with his men to see Italian art, including Michelangelo’s David and David Piero’S Piero. He died in London on 17 November 2011, aged 87. He is survived by his wife, two children and a step-daughter, and a son, Michael Goff, a barrister, and two step-great-grandchildren. He had a closer relationship with his mother than his father. Lionel’s principal interests were in fishing, hunting, shooting and riding, and he did not share his son’s passion for music, and gave up shooting after he turned eighteen. In 1923, he married Isabel Higgson, née Denroche-Smith, a widow of Archie Higg on, who had been killed in action in 1915. He later became a judge in the Federal Republic of Germany and was awarded the Order of Merit of the FederalRepublic of Germany.