Lord Judge said in a statement:
"On behalf of the judiciary of England and Wales, I would like to express my sorrow at the death of Tom Bingham, the most respected, distinguished and admired Judge of our times. His contributions to our understanding of the significance of the rule of law, and the principled development of the common law, have been unequalled in our generation. Judges throughout the world will recognise Tom Bingham as one of the great jurists of this generation and one of the great common law judges."
The Lord Chief Justice , Lord Judge, was invited by the Today Programme on Radio 4 to examine the legacy of Lord Bingham, who died at the weekend.
Lord Bingham the first judge to hold all three top legal posts in this country: Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice and Senior Law Lord.
Lord Judge said: ” We’ve lost the man that I believe was the most universally respected and admired judge of his generation. And the admiration and respect was not confined to this country; the reputation that he enjoyed was international. He was a master of the common law.
His entire judicial career was dedicated to the practical application of the rule of law in the individual case, particularly when the citizen was taking on, or being taken on by the organs of the state. That’s very broad and very general, but the application of the rule of law in each individual case was what seems to me to have motivated all his thinking. You will then have to consider the way he wrote his judgements.
He always explained why he was rejecting the arguments of one side that he was rejecting. He did it in language which was always clear. The reasons for his decisions stand up to analysis and reanalysis and further analysis. He was always seeking the relevant legal principle. You will never find a single incoherent word in any of his judgements. You’ll never find him using three words where one word would do, and he never uses language which obscures his meaning. From the point of view of the public, we’ve lost a great judge.
But I want to add this, and I want to emphasise it: the greatest judge of our generation was an utterly modest and unassuming man. He had no side to him at all, and he would be surprised to hear me saying these things about him. He did not for one moment appreciate how very special he was.”
