Professor Sir JH Baker

By Lesley Dingle and Daniel Bates

Professor Sir John Hamilton Baker

Biography

  • 1944: Born 10th April, Sheffield
  • 1949-55: Trinity Road Primary School, Chelmsford
  • 1955-1962: King Edward VI Grammar School Chelmsford

Degrees

  • 1965: LL.B. London (1st class)
  • 1968: Ph.D. London
  • 1971: M.A. Cantab.
  • 1984: LL.D. Cantab.
  • 1992: Hon. LL.D. Chicago

Professional Qualifications

  • 1966: Barrister, Inner Temple
  • 1978: adm. ad eundem gradum, Gray’s Inn

University College London

  • 1962-65: LLB
  • 1965-67: Assistant Lecturer Law
  • 1967-71: Lecturer Law

Cambridge

  • 1971-73: Librarian, Squire Law Library
  • 1971 -   Fellow St Catharine’s College (Professorial 1988, Emeritus 2011, Honorary 2012)
  • 1971: MA Cantab
  • 1973-83: University Lecturer Law
  • 1980-81: Junior Proctor
  • 1983-88: Reader in English Legal History
  • 1988-98: Professor English Legal History
  • 1990-92: Chairman, Faculty of Law
  • 1998-2011: Downing Professor of Laws of England
  • 2011: Retired

Visiting Teaching & Research posts

  • 1973-78: Lecturer in Legal History, Inns of Court School of Law
  • 1979: Professor, Department of Law, European University Institute, Florence, March
  • 1982: Lecturer, Harvard Law School Fall
  • 1983: Mellon Senior Research Fellow, Huntington Library, San Marino, California
  • 1984: Ford Special Lecturer, University of Oxford
  • 1985-c. 2000: Instructor, University of Richmond Summer Program, Cambridge
  • 1987: Professor, Yale Law School, Fall
  • 1988-2002: Visiting Professor, NYU School of Law
  • 1992: Visiting Professor, City University, London
  • 1995: Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, 1 Jan. to 30 June
  • 2003-2008, 2010: Senior Golieb (Research) Fellow, NYU School of Law

Awards & Honours

  • 1965: Andrews Medal and Prize (UCL)
  • 1975: Yorke Prize (Cambridge)
  • 1980: Fellow Royal Historical Society
  • 1984: LLD,Cantab
  • 1984: Fellow British Academy
  • 1985: Ames Medal and Prize (Harvard)
  • 1988: Hon Bencher Inner Temple
  • 1991: Fellow, University College London, (redesignated Honorary Fellow c. 2012 on the discontinuance of ordinary fellowships)
  • 1992: Hon. LL.D. Chicago
  • 1996: Q.C., honoris causa
  • 1997: Honorary Fellow, Society for Advanced Legal Studies
  • 2001: Honorary Foreign Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 2003: Knight Bachelor
  • 2003: Honorary Member, Society for Legal Scholars
  • 2008: Gold Medal, Irish Society for Legal History
  • 2013: Sutherland Prize, American Society for Legal History
  • 2013: Honorary Bencher, Gray’s Inn

Editorial Positions

  • 1972-: Editor, English Legal Manuscripts Project (microfiche)
  • 1978, 1984: Member of Publications Committee, Advisory Council on Public Records
  • 1981-2011: Literary Director, Selden Society (with D.E.C. Yale, 1981-91)
  • 1987-: General editor, Cambridge Studies in English Legal History
  • 1988-: General editor, Oxford History of the Laws of England
  • 1998-2004: Associate Editor, New Dictionary of National Biography; with title of Research Associate, 2000.