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'Thomas Henry Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill', KG, PC, FBA (born 13 October 1933), is one of the most senior judges in the United Kingdom. Prior to his elevation to the judiciary, he practised from Fountain Court Chambers in London.
As the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 1996 to 2000, Bingham was (for those regions of the UK) the highest-ranking judge in regular courtroom service; he was personally responsible for adding "and Wales" to the office's title.
He had been created a life peer as 'Baron Bingham of Cornhill', of Boughrood in the County of Powys in 1996, before he moved to the House of Lords, the country's highest court of appeal, as the "Senior" Law Lord in 2000 (although he had not been one before); he was succeeded as Lord Chief Justice by Lord Woolf, who had likewise succeeded him in 1996 as Master of the Rolls.
He is an advocate of reorganization of the British court system, and under present Government proposals his title would become ''President of the Supreme Court'', a new high court divorced from the House of Lords.
In 2005, he was appointed a Knight of the Garter, an honour in the personal gift of the Queen and one only rarely conferred on judges (Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone was a previous holder and a previous Lord Chancellor). He received the title along with Lady Soames and John Major. Additionally, he is the Chairman of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.
On Thursday 16th November 2006 Lord Bingham delivered the the sixth annual Sir David Williams lecture hosted by the Centre for Public Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. The Lecture was entitled "The Rule of Law".
Lord Bingham was educated at Sedbergh School (Winder House) and Balliol College, Oxford. Since 2001 he has held the office of High Steward of the University of Oxford, the second highest office in the academic hierarchy, and in 2003 he came second to Chris Patten in the election of the Chancellor.