James John Skinner

His uncle, Leo Skinner, a solicitor, was also an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and was elected (1943 and 1944) to Dáil Éireann as a TD for the Cork North constituency and was appointed a District Court judge in 1966.

His cousin, Geraldine Skinner, a barrister, became the legal adviser in the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin and subsequently the Irish Ambassador to Luxembourg.

Ostracized by most White residents of the colony, Skinner lost in his bid for a seat in the pre-independence parliament in the 1962 general election.

He resigned six months later in September 1969 following a clash with President Kenneth Kaunda over the sentencing of Portuguese soldiers from neighbouring Angola.

A fellow expatriate jurist, Ifor Evan, concluded the original arrest of the soldiers was "trivial" and dismissed the charges.

In that year, Skinner returned to England, where he was appointed a Social Security and Child Support Commissioner by the Lord Chancellor.

"[6] "...such independence [of the judiciary] implies freedom from interference by the Executive or Legislative with the exercise of the judicial function, but it does not mean that the judge is entitled to act in an arbitrary manner.

Anyone in the state who tried to stop free or effective representation would be striking a blow against social progress and orderly society, for the law is the instrument which ensures the attainment of both.

The right which is guaranteed in our fundamental law has for a long time been recognized to be of great importance to the maintenance of the freedom of the individual in many countries having a similar jurisprudence to our own.

It is only in this manner that an accused person can be guaranteed a fair and impartial trial before an unbiased judge free from the domination of public opinion….