James Munby

Outspoken leader of Britain's family courts who made serving the most vulnerable a lifelong mission

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James Munby at his Wiltshire home in 2019.

(Andrew Testa/Tortoise)

As Britain's most senior judge in family law, James Munby never forgot the real lives at the heart of the cases before him.

His vast understanding of the law was infused with compassion and motivated by the charge above the entrance to the Old Bailey: "Defend the Children of the Poor."

"One of the measures of a civilised society is how well it looks after the most vulnerable members," he said after a case in which he felt the system had badly failed a young woman. In a speech to the Society of Editors in 2013, he explained that since the end of capital punishment, rulings in family law were among the most consequential any judge can make. They should always remember that their decisions can have an impact that lasts a lifetime.

His sense of duty on behalf of the vulnerable led him to be outspoken in his five years as president of the Family Division. He described cuts to legal aid in 2014 as "unprincipled and unconscionable", while in 2017 he referred to the "disgraceful and utterly shaming" lack of services for vulnerable young people while ruling on the case of teenager in youth detention who had made several attempts to kill herself and could do so again.

"We will have blood on our hands," he warned.