Injustice put right
Eleanor Sharpston KC appointed DCMG
Congratulations to Dame Eleanor Sharpston KC, appointed Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George1 in the New Year honours list. And all credit to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, not something I often say these days, for putting right — at least partly — a long-standing injustice.
The government said yesterday:
Eleanor Sharpston KC, a distinguished and widely respected barrister, is appointed DCMG in recognition of her outstanding and sustained contribution to law and justice. This includes her former role as advocate general at the European Court of Justice as well as her major contribution as a law educator in the UK and across Europe, most recently in a high-profile professorship at the University of Cambridge.
As I wrote here in June 2021, the previous government snubbed Sharpston — together with Christopher Vajda KC, former judge of the EU Court of Justice and Ian Forrester KC, former judge of the EU General Court — when all three lost their posts in 2020 because of Brexit. Previous holders of these posts had been recognised in earlier honours lists.
Sharpston’s honour, announced at the first available opportunity after Labour came to power, is a clear signal that the earlier omissions were based on the former government’s anti-EU sentiment.
That may be acceptable as a political policy but there is no reason to take it out on individuals who followed what was, at the time, a well-respected path of public service. Given how unjustly Sharpston was treated by the court of which she was a member for nearly 15 years, you might have thought a Conservative prime minister would have wanted to show the UK’s support for the challenge she famously but unsuccessfully brought against her former employer.
By contrast, Sharpston’s contribution to development of the law was recognised in 2021 by Luxembourg, a country of which she is also a citizen. The Grand Duke of Luxembourg made her Grand Officer of the Order of Merit, the second most senior rank in the order.
Responding to the announcement of her DCMG, Sharpston said yesterday:
I am truly delighted to have been honoured in this way.
In many respects, my work at the European Court of Justice, my teaching and my academic research are intertwined. Legal education has always been, and continues to be, immensely important to me. Talking with younger lawyers is a real pleasure.
But I do also hope that, at some point, my receipt of this very welcome honour may also help my two judicial colleagues, Christopher Vajda KC (Court of Justice) and Ian Forrester KC (General Court) to be granted the recognition for their work that they unquestionably deserve.
Sharpston delivered the Hamlyn lectures in 2020 and has recently completed a book based on them for publication by Cambridge University Press.
Other newly honoured lawyers are listed in the Law Society Gazette. They include Professor Richard Susskind OBE KC (hon) FRSE who is advanced to CBE for services to information technology and the law; and Dana Denis-Smith who is made OBE for services to women in the legal profession. Congratulations to those concerned and happy new year to all my readers.
The order has three classes:
Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross
Knight Commander or Dame Commander
Companion
Hence the famous joke, quoted in Yes Minister:
Woolley: In the service, CMG stands for “Call Me God”. And KCMG for “Kindly Call Me God”.
Hacker: What does GCMG stand for?
Woolley (deadpan): “God Calls Me God”.
By analogy, DCMG must stand for “Do Call Me God”.
She fully deserves this recognition of her outstanding abilities and hard work. When I was a judge at the ECJ (2004-2012) I used to be asked annually by the FCO whether I could make any recommendations for honours. But it was expressly emphasised that services done to the European Union were to be ignored. I thought this indefensible and said so. I am glad that the present government has departed from the previous view.
I thought KCMG was “Kings call me God” but I am relying on memory.