Professor Sir Roy Goode, who died on 24 June 2026, was one of the most influential commercial law scholars of the past half-century. Born in 1933 and educated through the University of London's External Programme, he qualified as a solicitor in 1955 and spent some seventeen years in practice before turning to academia — a path that gave his scholarship its characteristic blend of rigour and practical insight.

He joined Queen Mary University of London as Professor of Law in 1971, and in 1980 founded the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS), of which he was the first Director and, later, Honorary President. The Centre was built on his conviction that commercial law advances most powerfully when scholars and practitioners work side by side — a model that continues to define CCLS today. He held the Crowther Professorship of Credit and Commercial Law at Queen Mary and went on to become the Norton Rose Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford, where he was an Emeritus Professor of Law and an Emeritus Fellow of St John's College.

A former solicitor and later a barrister, he was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1990 and knighted in 2000 for his services to academic law. He was a Fellow of the British Academy and held the degrees of LLD (Lond.) and DCL (Oxon), together with numerous honorary doctorates. His public service included the Crowther Committee on Consumer Credit, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, the DTI Advisory Committee on Arbitration, and the chairmanship of the Pension Law Review Committee, whose work led to the Pensions Act 1995. Internationally, he served on the Governing Council of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) and played a leading role in the development of a number of international Conventions and Protocols — most notably the Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, for which he authored the three Official Commentaries on the Convention and its Protocols on aircraft objects, railway rolling stock and space assets.

Sir Roy was a founding member of the CASTL Advisory Board. On accepting our invitation, he wrote: "This sounds a most interesting project and I will be happy to join the Advisory Board." His characteristic generosity — always willing to lend his wisdom and support to those who reached out — was felt by all who worked with him. We remember him as a visionary and an innovator who understood the practical application of law, and above all as a true colleague and friend. His influence endures.

The Centre for Commercial Law Studies, which Sir Roy founded, has published its own commemorative statement, which can be read here.