LORD CHORLEY
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1978.tb00790.x |
| Published date | 01 March 1978 |
| Date | 01 March 1978 |
THE
MODERN
LAW
REVIEW
Volume
41
March
1978
No.
2
LORD CHORLEY
THE
death of Lord Chorley marks the end of
an
epoch in the history
of
the
Modern
Law
Review.
He
resigned
as
General Editor in
1971,
but almost to the end of his
life
he regularly and conscientiously
took part
in
our Editorial Committee meetings and continued to help
us with his guidance and advice. His intense interest
in
the
Review
and its welfare never flagged for a moment, not even when a rapidly
failing eyesight made
it
almost impossible for him to read its pages.
In a very real sense Theo Chorley was, during the long years of
his General Editorship from
1937
to
1971,
the heart and soul
of
the
Review.
Whether or not-he always denied it-he could be regarded
as its
“
founder
”
is
really quite unimportant.
He
was its inspiration
from the very beginning. It reflected, particularly during the
earlier
years, his ideas, his interests, his insights. He was profoundly inter-
ested in law reform, especially in the reform of the criminal law, of
criminal procedure and
of
prison administration, and he was totally
committed-there is no other word-to the
cause
of
human rights
and civil liberties. These were the aspects of our work which were
closest to his heart, and on which he was eager to write in the
Review.
His work as a scholar and
as
a teacher centred around commercial
law, and it was as a leading specialist in maritime law (particularly,
but
by
no means only, in marine insurance) and in banking law that
he made his international reputation.
All
this was reflected
in
the
pages of the
Review.
So
was his determination-and Theo’s deter-
mination was as strong
as
were his humanitarian and humanist
convictions-to open up legal research, scholarship, writing, and
teaching to subjects of contemporary practical economic and especi-
ally social interest. He was persuaded that there was a need for
building a bridge between academic legal pursuits and the day-to-day
needs of the community, and here the community means the many
who are poor and not only the few who are rich. He encouraged the
other editors and the contributors to cultivate subjects like the law
of housing and town planning, education and health, labour law and
family law. It does not sound very original or innovative in
1978.
It
was in
1937.
Under his guidance the
Modern
Law
Review
became one of the
instruments through which the direction
of
legal learning and research,
121
VOL.
41
(2)
1
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