Congratulations are extended to former BILA President and current BILA Journal Editor, Rob Merkin, upon his appointment on 14th January 2015 by H M The Queen as one of only six new Queen’s Counsel Honoris Causa.
The Lord Chancellor, who presided over the appointment ceremony conducted in Westminster Hall on 16th February 2015, explained that the six Honorary Queen’s Counsel were nominated by their peers and that the honorary appointments were in recognition of the important contribution to the law in England and Wales each had made beyond the domain of the court room.
The formal description published of Rob’s contribution read as follows:
Professor Robert Merkin
Professor Robert Merkin is Professor of Law at the University of Exeter. He has been recommended for his contributions to arbitration and insurance law over the past 20 years. He is widely published, for example, Colinvaux’s Law of Insurance (6th ed 10th editions 1994 to 2014), Sweet & Maxwell, amongst many others. Robert lectures globally on both arbitration and insurance law and is known as an expert in several jurisdictions, including China, New Zealand and Australia amongst others. His nomination also focuses on his being cited in the same week by three different judges, for example, in an insurance case by Mr Justice Field in Tokyo Marine v Novae Corporate [2014] EWHC 2105 (Comm). His works have been cited in well over 150 judgments in a number of jurisdictions. Robert has held many appointments, for example, Presidential Council, AIDA, 1991 to date, elected Vice-President May 2010 to date; Vice-President and then President, British Insurance Law Association, 2008 to 2012. He was the winner of the Australian Insurance Law Association prize 2010 for his contribution to Australian insurance law and is an Honorary Professor of the University of Auckland. In December 2014 he was Expert Adviser to the House of Lords Special Public Bills Committee on the Insurance Bill 2014.