James Mackay, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, who has died aged 99, was unique in modern legal history in being made lord chancellor at the head of the profession in England and Wales despite having spent his career as a lawyer in the Scottish courts system rather than the English, until made a law lord. He was also almost certainly the last to be appointed for his legal expertise and distinction, rather than his party political qualifications.
A man of unbending rectitude, deep religious faith and high principles – inscrutable, in the words of Kenneth Clarke, one of his successors – Mackay was lord chancellor for nearly 10 years, from his appointment by Margaret Thatcher in October 1987 following the resignation of Lord (Michael) Havers, until the fall of John Major’s government in 1997, when Mackay was succeeded by another Scot, Lord (Derry) Irvine, who had been Tony and Cherie Blair’s pupil master and had spent his career as a barrister in England.
