(338)  DEATH OF LORD HOBHOUSE, DEFENDER OF ENGLISH LAW

The English Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough, died aged 72 on 15 March 2004, having delivered himself of two notable speeches in the recent cases of Shogun Finance Ltd v Hudson [2003] UKHL 62 and Burnett’s Trustee v Grainger [2004] UKHL 8 (see No 326).  In Shogun, he denounced Continental law: thus the rule that other evidence might not be adduced to contradict the terms of a written contract was one of the great strengths of English commercial law and is one of the main reasons for the international success of English law in preference to laxer systems which do not provide the same certainty” (para 50; for Scots law see Contract (S) Act 1997