THE RT. HON. SIR STEPHEN SEDLEY practised at the Bar of England and Wales for 28 years, specialising in public law and discrimination law, before being appointed a judge of the High Court in 1992. He became a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1999, and has sat on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and as a judge ad hoc of the European Court of Human Rights. He retired from the bench in March 2011.

He has been awarded honorary doctorates by eight British universities, is an honorary professor of law at Warwick and Cardiff Universities and has since 2000 been president of the British Institute of Human Rights. He writes in legal periodicals and for the London Review of Books. A collection of his essays, Ashes and Sparks, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2011.