I have chosen to speak on Lord Mustill and Maritime Law. I like to think that MJM would have enjoyed the palindromic initials LMAML for the title. I have chosen to speak on this subject for two reasons. First, I had the pleasure of knowing Michael for many years from when I was a pupil in what was then 4 Essex Court, when he encouraged me in my study and practice of maritime law; and, secondly, because his influence on maritime law in particular and commercial law in general, as advocate, judge and scholar, has been very great. In my book, he stands alongside Scrutton LJ, Lord Atkin and Lord Goff of Chieveley as being foremost among the most influential of judges in those spheres in the twentieth century. (I exclude Lord Bingham of Cornhill from this group only because he carried on judging into the twenty-first century). And of course, like all great judges, Michael Mustill’s distinction was not confined to just one area of the law. He brought equal qualities to the criminal law, personal injury law and administrative law—in which areas he wrote equally penetrating and memorable judgments which remain influential today.

Michael Mustill was born in 1931, the only son of Clement William and Marion Mustill and was proud to have been born a Yorkshireman. After school at Oundle and national service in the Royal Artillery, he went up to St John’s College Cambridge, which was also my college, where he read law. He was called to the bar by Gray’s Inn in 1955 and was a pupil of Michael Kerr in what was then 3 Essex Court, now 20 Essex Street. He started practice in No 3; No 4 (now Essex Court Chambers) did not then exist as a separate set of chambers. The commercial bar was then effectively confined to No 3, some practitioners in 7 King’s Bench Walk (“7KBW”) and one or two in No 1 Brick Court, where Lord Devlin had practised. 2 Essex Court (now Quadrant Chambers) confined itself then to “wet” maritime work. Michael told me that work as a commercial junior in the late 1950s and early 1960s was very scarce and, for juniors, not well paid. Much of his work in the first seven years of his practice consisted of devilling for his old pupil master, Michael Kerr; but Mustill got his breaks, such as being a second junior in the great scuttling case