Professor Sir Neil MacCormick
Neil
MacCormick passed away at the weekend. Many tributes
have been paid to him, and there’s nothing that I can
add that is very new, but I felt that it was right to
mark Neil’s passing. He was a man who always had a joke
and a good laugh ready for any occasion as well as being
a man whose intellect was incredible and whose command
of the subjects he spoke about was second to none.
He was
one of those people who always left you feeling better
than when he met you, the kind of person who it was a
privilege to know. You didn’t have to be important to
get time with Neil, nor did you have to be subservient
or sycophantic – that would even work against you. A
more generous spirit you couldn’t hope to meet.
He was
loved by the SNP, truly loved; he was an icon we all
adored and ranks alongside every one of the greats of
our party, like Winnie Ewing and Alan Macartney, he
served Scotland in Europe, like his father before him he
philosophised on how to take Scotland forward, like
Donald Stewart, he used humour as a tool to bring people
towards the cause.
His
oratory was punctuated with jokes and stories that he
would tell on himself, his speeches were always a
delight to listen to as he took you from the depths of a
philosophical debate to the heights of hilarity in just
a few phrases. He could discuss the intricate details
of a European treaty and move smoothly into a joke about
haggis suppers.
The
genius of Neil MacCormick was not confined to politics
(in many ways he a far too generous and kind man for the
gristle of politics) – he was also a confirmed genius of
Edinburgh University, he was Regius
Professor of
Public Law at Edinburgh University for 36 years – longer
than anyone else has ever served in that post, and he
was a world-renowned legal scholar, his theories on
sovereignty and liberal nationalism are taught in law
schools around the world today.
I can’t
better George Reid’s summation of Neil’s academic
career:
In 1965 he was appointed as a lecturer
at Queen’s College Dundee, followed by a return to
Balliol as a fellow and tutor in Jurisprudence. With his
move to Edinburgh University four years later, and his
subsequent publication of over a dozen books and
hundreds of academic papers, he established an
international reputation as one of the leading legal
philosophers of his age. In 1982 Edinburgh awarded him
the research degree of LL.D; in 1992 he was appointed
QC, honoris causa; in 2001 he was knighted in the
Birthday Honour’s List; and in 2004 he received the Gold
Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Along the way he served as Edinburgh’s
Dean of the Faculty of Law, Vice-Principal for
International Affairs, as a visiting professor in
Europe, North America and Australia, and as a Fellow of
the British Academy.
I’m told
his colleagues at
Edinburgh
University hold him in massively high regard and that he
will be missed by them as much as he will be missed by
SNP members. He turned down the opportunities offered
by US universities – Ivy League universities – to stay
in Scotland, the country he loved and the country he
dedicated his political life to. Even when he was dying
he was looking ahead and dreaming of a better Scotland.
He regretted that he wouldn't be around to see
independence but was content that, like his father, he
was a staging post in the long march to independence and
along the way he had improved some things around him.
I’ll miss
Neil MacCormick, just as I miss so many other friends
who have gone before we restored our country to
independence. I’ll seek to do their memory justice by
campaigning for a better future for the country they
left behind.
Here are
links to some of the tributes to Professor Sir Neil
MacCormick – you can leave your own tributes on the SNP
site and on the
Edinburgh
University site:
http://remember.snp.org/
http://www.plaidcymru.org/content.php?nID=14;ID=1237;lID=1
http://calumcashley.blogspot.com/2009/04/professor-sir-neil-maccormick.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/apr/07/obituary-sir-neil-maccormick
http://forargyll.com/2009/04/more-tributes-to-professor-sir-neil-maccormick/
http://scotsandindependent.blogspot.com/2009/04/prof-neil-maccormick.html
http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/sln/blogentry.aspx?blogentryref=7748
http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/neilmaccormick/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6046660.ece
http://www.journalonline.co.uk/News/1006428.aspx
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/law-obituaries/5115780/Sir-Neil-MacCormick.html
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/obituaries/Professor-Sir-Neil-MacCormick-Legal.5147075.jp
