Lord Doherty, who previously sat as a judge of the Inner House of the Court of Session in Edinburgh since 2020, has been appointed as a Justice of the UK Supreme Court. Lord Doherty will be sworn in as a Justice of the Supreme Court in early 2026.

Raymond Doherty took silk in 1997 and maintained a predominantly civil practice at the Bar, with emphases on commercial law, property law, public law, and valuation for rating.

Among the more notable cases he decided in the Outer House of the Court of Session was Cherry v Advocate General for Scotland (Lord Advocate intervening) [2019] CSOH 70; 2019 SLT 1071 refusing a petition challenging the prorogation of Parliament (much as the Divisional Court of the Queen’s Bench Division had done in England in R (Miller) v Prime Minister (Lord Advocate intervening) [2019] EWHC 2381 (QB); [2019] WLR (D) 511) – both claims were ultimately allowed by the Supreme Court  [2019] UKSC 41; [2020] AC 373.

His decision in the Inner House of the Court of Session in the less controversial tax case of DCM (Optical Holdings) Ltd v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2020] CSIH 60; [2020] STC 2125 was affirmed by the Supreme Court  [2022] UKSC 26; [2022] 1 WLR 4815.

Lord Reed, President of the Supreme Court, welcomed Lord Doherty’s appointment, saying he was an “exceptionally able judge, with sound judgement and long experience of the Scottish legal system”.

Photograph of Lord Doherty via Supreme Court website (Crown Copyright, used under the open government licence).

Source: https://www.supremecourt.uk/news/lord-doherty-appointed-to-the-uk-supreme-court