Mungo Bovey QC - New Keeper of the Advocates Library
Posted: May 5, 2008
Mungo Bovey QC has been elected by his colleagues at the Bar as Keeper of the Advocates Library.
Mr Bovey, who called to the Bar in 1984 and became a QC in 1998, has been involved in many of the leading human rights cases of recent years and has appeared before the House of Lords and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as well as the Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary.
His cases include challenges to the independence and impartiality of temporary sheriffs and temporary Court of Session judges and to the validity of convictions in cases involving temporary sheriffs.
In the first of these cases – Starrs v Ruxton – the Court of Criminal Appeal ruled that temporary sheriffs appointed on an annual basis with the Lord Advocate playing a key role in the system could not be regarded as truly independent from the Government in criminal cases.
The decision led to fundamental changes in the way these appointments were made.
Mr Bovey, 49, was also involved in a case in which a journalist claimed anti-English discrimination by BBC Scotland and drafted a brief for Parliamentarians in the case of Kenny Ritchie who was on death row in the
He has also argued a number of immigration and asylum cases – including one in which an Iranian national was at risk of being stoned to death if he was sent back to his home country.
Mr Bovey has been consultant editor of UK Human Rights Reports since 2000, chairman of the Faculty of Advocates Human Rights Committee since 2005 and has lectured on human rights as a Council of Europe expert in
He has also been a member of the English Bar since 2000 and in the past has stood as a Parliamentary candidate for the SNP as well as acting as the party’s law reform spokesman.
Commenting on his election, Mr Bovey said: “The Faculty’s status as a centre of excellence depends to a large extent on the excellence of its library. My aim will be to ensure that the Advocates Library will continue its unique role at the centre of Scottish legal life.”
He takes over as Keeper from Stephen Woolman QC who has been appointed to the Bench with the judicial title of Lord Woolman.