Robin Brunskill Cooke, Baron Cooke of Thorndon, ONZ, KBE, PC, is a member of the British House of Lords. Prior to reaching the age of 75 he was a Lord of Appeal and a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, however he is now beyond statutory retirement age for judicial work.
Lord Cooke was educated at the Wanganui Collegiate School. His university education was at the Victoria University College, New Zealand, and at Clare College (research) and Gonville and Caius College (doctor) at Cambridge
Prior to his peerage, Robin Cooke was a senior Jurist in New Zealand. He was appointed to the New Zealand Court of Appeal (the highest local court in that country) in the 1970s and was eventually made President of this tribunal. He was knighted as Sir Robin Cooke.
Cooke is regarded as one of the most influential jurists in New Zealand in the latter quarter of the 20th century. He took what could be considered a liberal viewpoint in many areas, often seeking to assert a right for the courts to intervene where none was prescribed in legislation. One of his more controversial positions came in New Zealand Poultry Board v. Taylor , where he asserted that certain common law rights were so ingrained at law that even the New Zealand Parliament could not override them. This contradicts the dominant parliamentary supremacy theories of A. V. Dicey, which had guided common law courts since the late 19th century.