He may not have been as controversial as Lord Denning, but Lord Hoffmann certainly didn’t shy away from controversy during his time in the House of Lords.
Ask a group of 20 English law students to vote on the most controversial judge in history and the winner, invariably and overwhelmingly, is Lord Denning. But ask those same students to name the most controversial living judge, and their answer is far from unanimous. My nomination would go to Lord Hoffmann, who retired earlier this year aged 74.
