News In Focus
24 July 2007
Death of Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle
Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle, the former Scottish Lord of Appeal, has died at the age of 82.
Charles Eliot Jauncey was born in Edinburgh in 1925 and admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1949. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1963 and served as Sheriff Principal of Fife and Kinross from 1971 to 1974. Appointed to the Court of Session and High Court bench in 1979, he became one of the Scottish judges in the House of Lords in 1988 after Lord Mackay of Clashfern was appointed Lord Chancellor. He retired in 2000 but continued to sit in certain appeals.
In the early 1980s Lord Jauncey heard the case brought against Strathclyde Regional Council by opponents of fluoridation of the water supply. In a typically trenchant judgment he found that the council did not have power to treat the water except to ensure its fitness for consumption, but dismissed the claims that the treatment created medical risks and criticised the granting of legal aid to fund the case, which took over 200 court days.
A lover of the country life, he was the author of a small textbook on fishing rights in Scotland.