Cockburn, Sir Alexander

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Thu Mar 1 10:56:38 PST 2001


Does anyone know offhand if the Alex we know has any relation to this fellow?

Michael

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

Cockburn, Sir Alexander James Edmund

1802-80, British jurist. He was called to the bar in 1829, and a

volume of reports on election cases (1832) brought him into national

prominence as a trial lawyer. He was made recorder for Southampton

(1841) and was elected to Parliament from there (1847). He was noted

particularly for his defense advocacy, one of his most famous

successes being the acquittal (1843) of Daniel McNaghten, who had

killed Sir Robert Peel's secretary, on grounds of insanity; the

"McNaghten rules" became the basic definition of criminal

responsibility in most English-speaking jurisdictions. In Parliament,

Cockburn successfully defended Lord Palmerston's handling of the "Don

Pacifico" dispute (1850). He served as attorney general (1851-56) and

was chief justice of common pleas (1856-59) and lord chief justice

(1859-80), presiding over the famous Tichborne case.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2001 Columbia

University Press.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list