Sheriff Brian Kearney

“Scots law has lost a legend and Scotland’s children a champion following the death of Sheriff Brian Kearney, who loved the law and made contributions to it, appreciated by so many. His career embraced practising as a solicitor in Glasgow, a lengthy period on the bench as a sheriff and prolific author of various publications, latterly relating to the children’s hearing system, which became invaluable to many court users.

“His legal credentials stretch back well before his birth. His grandfather, who was a colleague of a notable red Clydesider, was in 1925 sentenced to 60 days in prison and a £10 fine for addressing a public meeting and inciting police officers to strike and to violence. The case reached the appeal court and is still an authority on the evidential value of a police officer’s notebook.

“Thereafter his parents were married not in a church or registry office but by an irregular form of marriage unique to Scotland known as marriage by declaration (where the couple, before witnesses, declare themselves married), which was thereafter registered by the local sheriff. Even then it was an archaic and rare procedure and known to few apart from bemused first-year law students.”

Read the full obituary here