John Cooke obituary: High Court judge expert in competition law

Born: May 7th, 1944 Died: April 28th, 2022

As a senior counsel and judge of the Court of First Instance of the European Union and our own High Court, John Cooke, who died on April 28th, aged 77, was justly described on his retirement by the then president of the High Court "as one of the foremost Irish jurists of his time". That Cooke was denied further preferment was more a reflection of the politics-linked processes of selection of judges than of his considerable merits.

Born in Dublin on May 7th, 1944, he was the eldest of three children of Richard Cooke, a barrister, who had taken time off from his practice to serve in the Defence Forces during the Emergency. The family lived in Clonskeagh and John joined the seven-year olds at nearby Gonzaga a year after the school’s foundation in 1950. From Gonzaga he went on to UCD, then still in Earlsfort Terrace, where he took the law degree. A star debater in the college’s Literary and Historical Society, he was, recalled a contemporary, “a fine speaker, patrician in appearance, with a strong declamatory style and a mischievous inlay of subtle humour”.

Called to the Bar in 1966, Cooke “devilled” with John Cassidy and practised in Dublin. He found a niche on an RTÉ programme, Home Truths, answering queries about the law. This opened the way for his appearance on Gay Byrne’s Late Late Show in 1972 in a court-style debate between barristers on the merits of Ireland joining the European Economic Community.

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In the wake of this and Irish entry to the EEC in 1973, Cooke was able to establish himself as a specialist in community law. Attorney general Declan Costello, who was new to the subject, availed of Cooke’s expertise and then came to brief him regularly in other important cases.

With an office in Exchequer Street, Cooke pioneered the practice of leading commercial barristers setting up on their own while retaining membership of the Law Library. Later, he also had a seat in chambers in London.

Thriving practice

Cooke’s practice, mainly as an adviser and non-jury advocate, continued to thrive after he took silk in 1980. He led in a case persuading the High Court and Supreme Court to reverse the decision of the registrar of building societies and allow the Bank of Ireland to take over the Irish Civil Service Building Society. This made untenable the lax tax regime for building society depositors and led to the introduction of Dirt for all financial institutions.

In a lengthy legal battle, acting for Vincent Browne’s Magill magazine, Cooke persuaded the European Court of Justice in 1995 that television companies were abusing their dominant position by denying the right to publish, free of charge, their schedule of programmes.

Shortly afterwards, he was appointed Irish judge in the Court of First Instance of the European Union, a major part of whose work is in competition law. He served two terms of six years on the court. He was lead judge in a landmark case in 2017 where Microsoft was found to have abused its dominant position in the operating systems market.

His resignation in 2018, shortly after his reappointment for a further term, occasioned surprise. He completed his judicial career at home as a judge of the High Court. His expertise in competition law was invaluable. Industrious as ever, his mastery of the papers in a case in advance of the hearing sometimes disconcerted less prepared counsel.

In 2013 he voiced unease at the number of judicial reviews in immigration cases coming before him and called upon the government to enact a clear law on immigrant family reunification.

Retirement

Retirement at the end of that year brought Cooke little rest as he was commissioned to report on charges that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission office had been bugged by gardaí resentful of their supervision by the commission. He found the charges not proven.

Since 2017 Cooke had been engaged investigating allegations that National Asset Management Agency had sold at an undervalue to a favoured bidder assets available for the payment of debts in Northern Ireland taken over from the Irish banks. His terminal illness precluded completion of this task.

Cooke was president of Dublin Zoo in the late 1980s when financial crisis threatened its survival. He oversaw reforms and made it more accessible, especially as a vehicle for the education of the young. An annual government grant and extra land were secured.

Cooke had a strong sense of justice and human sympathy not always found in successful lawyers. His austere appearance and reserve led some to a mistaken view that he was aloof. What was true was that he was somewhat solitary with a lifestyle that was simple and unostentatious. He was a devout traditional Catholic participating regularly as a reader at Masses in Dundrum parish church near his home in Churchtown.

He is survived by his wife Sally – they were married for more than 50 years – and by their two children Catherine and David.