Sir Ross Frederick Cranston (born 23 July 1948, Brisbane, Australia) , styled The Hon. Mr Justice Cranston, is a High Court judge, formerly an academic lawyer and Labour Party politician, in the United Kingdom.

Early life

He went to the University of Queensland where he studied Law, gaining a BA in 1969 and an LLB in 1970. From the Harvard Law School, he gained an LLM in 1973. From Oxford University, he gained a DPhil in 1976 and much later a DCL in 1998. He became a barrister at Gray's Inn in 1976.

Cranston was a professor at the LSE from 1992-7 and the holder of the Cassell Chair in Commercial Law from 1993 to 1997. Before that he held academic posts in the UK and Australia and the Sir John Lubbock chair in Banking Law at QMW, being a professor of Law at Queen Mary and Westfield College from 1986-91.

Parliamentary career

He contested Richmond (North Yorkshire) in 1992. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Dudley North at the 1997 general election, and served as Solicitor General from 1998 to 2001, when he returned to the back benches. After speculation amongst colleagues, he announced in 2005 that he would not stand for Parliament again in the 2005 election. He was succeeded by Ian Austin.

Law career

He was the Centennial Professor of Law at the LSE from 2005 to 2007 .

He was appointed as a High Court judge in October 2007, assigned to the Queen's Bench Division .

On 14 December 2007, sitting in the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, Mr Justice Cranston (together with Mr Justice Cooke) heard an appeal against sentence by a woman who had pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving, and other matters. Having stolen goods from a Tesco store she had driven her car straight at a security guard, who jumped onto the bonnet to avoid being hit. The appellant had screamed at him to get off, saying she would otherwise kill him. He eventually jumped off. A police car, its lights blazing and sirens switched on, pursued the appellant out of Leamington as she failed to stop. She was ultimately stopped by another police car blocking a slip-road. The sentencing judge had concluded that her actions were "deliberate, sustained and highly dangerous".

Mr Justice Cranston described this conduct as "a bad case of dangerous driving but not the worst", and reduced the judge's sentence of 15 months imprisonment to one of 9 months. .

Personal life

He is divorced.

External links

• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Ross Cranston MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Ross Cranston MP