Джеймс Фитцджеймс Стивен: Юрист, философ и писатель

English lawyer, judge, writer, and philosopher (1829–1894)

Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, 1st Baronet, KCSI (3 March 1829 – 11 March 1894) was an English lawyer, judge, writer, and philosopher. One of the most famous critics of John Stuart Mill, Stephen achieved prominence as a philosopher, law reformer, and writer.

James Fitzjames Stephen was born on 3 March 1829 at Kensington Gore, London, the third child and second son of Sir James Stephen and Jane Catherine Venn. Stephen came from a distinguished family. His father, the drafter of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, was Permanent Under Secretary of State for the Colonies and Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. His grand father James Stephen and uncle George Stephen were both leading anti slavery campaigners. His younger brother was the author and critic Sir Leslie Stephen, whilst his younger sister Caroline Stephen was a philanthropist and a writer on Quakerism. Through his brother Leslie Stephen, he was the uncle of Virginia Woolf, He was also a cousin of the jurist A. V. Dicey. Stephen was first educated at the Reverend Benjamin Guest's school in Brighton from the age of seven, before spending three years at Eton College from 1842. Strongly disliking Eton, Stephen completed his pre university education by attending King's College, London for two years. In October 1847 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. Although an outstanding intellect, he took an undistinguished BA in Classics in 1851, being, in his own words, one of the "most unteachable of human beings". He was, however, well known as a strong debater at the Cambridge Union. He was also elected to the exclusive Cambridge Apostles, his proposer being Henry Maine, the newly appointed Regius Professor of Civil Law, who became a lifelong friend despite their differing temperaments. At Apostles meetings, he frequently sparred with William Harcourt, later leader of the Liberal Party, in debates described by contemporaries as "veritable battles of the gods". Another Apostles contemporary was the physicist James Clerk Maxwell. Being conscious of the slightness of his legal education, he then read for an LL. B. from the University of London. This was an unusual step for its day, and it was there that he first seriously engaged with the works of Jeremy Bentham.

After leaving Cambridge, Stephen chose to enter a legal career, though his father had hoped for a clerical career. He was called to the bar in January 1854 by the Inner Temple, and joined the Midland Circuit. His own estimation of his professional success—written in later years—was that in spite of such training rather than because of it, he became a moderately successful advocate and a rather distinguished judge. In his earlier years at the bar he supplemented his income from a successful but modest practice as a journalist. He contributed to the Saturday Review from the time it was founded in 1855. He was in company with Maine, Harcourt, G. S. Venables, Charles Bowen, E. A. Freeman, Goldwin Smith and others. Both the first and the last books published by Stephen were selections from his papers in the Saturday Review (Essays by a Barrister, 1862, anonymous; Horae sabbaticae, 1892). These volumes embodied the results of his studies of publicists and theologians, chiefly English, from the 17th century onwards. He never professed his essays to be more than the occasional products of an amateur's leisure, but they were well received. From 1858 to 1861, Stephen served as secretary to a Royal Commission on popular education, whose conclusions were promptly put into effect. In 1859 he was appointed Recorder of Newark. In 1863 he published his General View of the Criminal Law of England, the first attempt made since William Blackstone to explain the principles of English law and justice in a literary form, and it enjoyed considerable success. The foundation of the Pall Mall Gazette in 1865 gave Stephen a new literary avenue. He continued to contribute until he became a judge. Stephen's practice at the Bar was an uneven one, though he appeared in two notable cases. In 1861–62, he unsuccessfully defended the Reverend Rowland Williams in the Court of Arches against charges of heresy, though he was ultimately acquitted in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. In 1865–66, Stephen was retained (along with Edward James QC) by the Jamaica Committee, which sought to prosecute Edward Eyre, Governor of Jamaica, for his excesses in suppressing the Morant Bay rebellion of 1865. They produced a legal opinion, which charged Eyre and his officers with serious breaches of English criminal law, some of them capital. In early 1867, Stephen was retained by the Jamaica Committee to prosecute Alexander Abercromby Nelson and Herbert Brand, two military officers who had sat on the court martial which sentenced George William Gordon to death; but the grand jury declined to return a true bill. He was then retained to prosecute Eyre: when he began his case, Stephen surprised observers by praising Eyre as a courageous man who had acted honourably in an emergency. Eyre was discharged and Stephen fell out with the Jamaica Committee. His friendship with John Stuart Mill, who was a leading member of the Committee, was permanently damaged. Stephen was a critic of Mill's "sentimental liberalism", arguing that the British government was justified in applying force to prevent subject societies from descending into anarchy. Meanwhile, Stephen's legal career proceeded apace, and in 1868, he became a Queen's Counsel, one of fifteen that year. However, he suffered a setback in January 1869, when he was passed over for the Whewell Professorship of International Law in favour of his old rival William Harcourt.

The decisive point of Stephen's career was in the summer of 1869, when he accepted the post of legal member of the Viceroy's Executive Council in India. His appointment was at the recommendation of his friend Henry Maine, who was his immediate predecessor. He arrived in India in December 1869. During his time in India, Stephen would draft twelve acts and eight other enactments, most of which are still in force. Guided by Maine's comprehensive talents, the government of India had entered a period of systematic legislation which was to last about twenty years. Stephen had the task of continuing this work by conducting the Bills through the Legislative Council. The Native Marriages Act of 1872 was the result of deep consideration on both Maine's and Stephen's part. The Indian Contract Act had been framed in England by a learned commission, and the draft was materially altered in Stephen's hands before, also in 1872, it became law.

The Indian Evidence Act of the same year, entirely Stephen's own work, made the rules of evidence uniform for all residents of India, regardless of caste, social position, or religion. Besides drafting legislation, at this time Stephen had to attend to the current administrative business of his department, and he took a full share in the general deliberations of the viceroy's council. His last official act in India was the publication of a minute on the administration of justice which pointed the way to reforms not yet fully realized, and is still a valuable tool for anyone wishing to understand the judicial system of British India.

Stephen returned, mainly for family reasons, to England in the spring of 1872. During the voyage he wrote a series of articles which resulted in his book Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873–1874) a protest against John Stuart Mill's neo utilitarianism. Around this time, Leslie Stephen noted the influence of Thomas Carlyle on his brother's thought. This showed in Stephen's famous attack on the thesis of John Stuart Mill's essay On Liberty, arguing for legal compulsion, coercion and restraint in the interests of morality and religion. Stephen argued, "Force is an absolutely essential element of all law whatever." Stephen died of chronic renal failure on 11 March 1894 at Red House Park, a nursing home near Ipswich, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London. His wife survived him.

Stephen was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in January 1877. He was created a Baronet, of De Vere Gardens in the parish of Saint Mary Abbott, Kensington, in the County of London, on 29 June 1891, shortly after his resignation from the bench. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a corresponding member of the Institut de France (1888). He received honorary doctorates from the University of Oxford (1878) and the University of Edinburgh University (1884), and was elected an honorary fellowship of Trinity College, Cambridge (1885).

Essays by a Barrister. London: Elder and Co., 1862. A General View of the Criminal Law of England. London: Macmillan & Co., 1890 (1st Pub. 1863). The Indian evidence act (I. of 1872): With an Introduction on the Principles of Judicial Evidence. London: Macmillan and Co., 1872. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. New York: Holt & Williams, 1873 (2nd ed.) 1874. A History of the Criminal Law of England, Vol. 2, Vol. 3. London: Macmillan & Co., 1883. The Story of Nuncomar and the Impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey, Vol. 2. London: Macmillan and Co., 1885. Horae Sabbaticae: Reprint of Articles Contributed to the Saturday Review. First Series. London: Macmillan & Co., 1892. Horae Sabbaticae: Reprint of Articles Contributed to the Saturday Review. Second Series. London: Macmillan & Co., 1892. Horae Sabbaticae: Reprint of Articles Contributed to the Saturday Review. Third Series. London: Macmillan & Co., 1892.

"Responsibility and Mental Competence," Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1865. "Codification in India and England," The Fortnightly Review, Vol. XVIII, 1872. "Parliamentary Government," Part II, The Contemporary Review, Vol. XXIII, December 1873/May 1874. "Caesarism and Ultramontanism," Part II, The Contemporary Review, Vol. XXIII, December 1873/May 1874. "Necessary Truth," The Contemporary Review, Vol. XXV, December 1874/May 1875. "The Laws of England as to the Expression of Religious Opinion," The Contemporary Review, Vol. XXV, December 1874/May 1875. "Mr. Gladstone and Sir George Lewis on Authority in Matters of Opinion," The Nineteenth Century, March/July, 1877. "Improvement of the Law by Private Enterprise," The Nineteenth Century, Vol. II, August/December, 1877. "Suggestions as to the Reform of the Criminal Law," The Nineteenth Century, Vol. II, August/December, 1877. "The Influence Upon Morality of a Decline in Religious Belief." In: A Modern Symposium, Rose Belford Publishing Co., 1878. "Gambling and the Law," The Nineteenth Century, Vol. XXX, July/December, 1891. "Criminal Procedure from the Thirteenth to the Eighteenth Century." In: Select Essays in Anglo American Legal History, Vol. II, Little, Brown & Company, 1908.

"Codification in India and England," Opening Address of the Session 1872 3 of the Law Amendment Society, The Law Magazine, Vol. I, New Series, 1872.