Born: December 14th, 1936
Died: November 4th, 2022
Dr John Temple Lang, the internationally renowned competition lawyer and passionate environmentalist, has died suddenly in his 86th year.
The Dublin-born lawyer, who worked for the European Commission for almost three decades, was recognised as one of the leading global thinkers of his generation on competition law alongside fellow Irish men Peter Sutherland and John Cooke.
He also did important work on the implications of Brexit, both before it occurred and after, and some colleagues argue that had more people read this work before the Brexit referendum, they might have felt differently. And had they read it post-Brexit, they would have foreseen the real dangers Brexit posed to Anglo-Irish and Anglo-European relations.
The author of multiple books on competition law and more than 200 journal articles, Temple Lang was an adjunct professor at the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), a senior visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford and a guest lecturer and speaker at many other universities around the world. He received an honorary doctorate of law from TCD in 1980 and another from Lund University in Sweden in 2008.
“He was a brilliant, original and strikingly clear lawyer with a depth and breadth of analysis that was amazing. He often came up with answers to several questions that no one had even thought to ask, never mind attempt to answer,” said his long-time friend and colleague, Robert O’Donoghue.
Widely known as JTL, Temple Lang was considered by colleagues as a person of great professional vision and prescience: He published a book on the common market and common law in 1966, seven years before Ireland joined the European Economic Community. This book dealt with legal aspects of foreign investment and economic integration in the European Community using Ireland as a prototype.
Once in Brussels, he immediately became immersed in the commission’s legal service, defending it in some of its most important cases in the European Court
John Temple Lang grew up in Glenageary, Dublin, the only child of Geraldine (née Keller) and Walter Temple Lang. His mother was one of the first women to study at TCD and later one of the first woman solicitors in Ireland. His father worked for the Guinness brewery firm.
Following his secondary school education as a boarder at Newtown School in Waterford city, Temple Lang studied legal science in Trinity College Dublin, graduating with first-class honours in 1957. He qualified as a solicitor the following year and worked for McCann Fitzgerald in Dublin, becoming a partner at the firm. His marriage to former district judge Gillian Hussey, with whom he had three children, didn’t last and after they separated he left Ireland to work for the European Commission.
Once in Brussels, he immediately became immersed in the commission’s legal service, defending it in some of its most important cases in the European Court as well as advising the commission on sensitive legal matters. Colleagues say he was one of the pioneers who built the European competition policy, making it the powerful tool it is today.
In the 1980s, Temple Lang took up a senior position in the Directorate General IV [now Directorate General for Competition or DG Comp as it is known], one of the most important divisions of what was then the European Community. While there, he was responsible for a wide range of work. This included the liberalisation of former state monopolies into competitive markets (notably in telecoms) and the opening up of international cargo shipping to competition (eg passenger ferries).
He was also one of the first competition law scholars to explore the complex world of joint ventures and the thorny relationship between anti-dumping practice and antitrust law. And with his great friend the former diplomat and EU official Eamonn Gallagher, he did important work on EU institutional law, developing structures to prevent bigger member states from getting their way over smaller ones.
Passionate about the natural world and an avid bird watcher from a young age, Temple Lang helped shape Irish and European nature conservation legislation. He was involved in the drafting of the European Birds and Habitats Directives — emphasising the importance of the network of special protection areas for the former and Nature 2000 sites for the latter. He also advised the European Commission on the Vienna Convention on the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol.
In Ireland, Temple Lang was a co-founder of the Irish Wildbird Conservancy in the 1970s — now Birdwatch Ireland — and was central to the legislative language which formed the basis of the Irish Wildlife Act, 1976. He was a patron of the Irish Environmental Law Association for a time and an active member of various other environmental organisations including the European section of Birdlife International.
Temple Lang’s dedication to international public service continued until 2000 after which he returned to private practice to work with Cleary Gottlieb, one of the most prestigious firms in Brussels. For the next 15 years, he played a prominent role in many of the leading cases of the day before the commission and the EU courts.
He mentored hundreds of people and always gave particular attention to Irish people who came to work for the commission
Appreciated by many for his kindness and generosity, Lang was a wonderful mentor who didn’t suffer fools gladly. He could be quite tough with peer lawyers yet remarkably kind to a junior associate or a third-level student nervously looking for advice. He had a deep interest in people from all walks of life. During his long career in Brussels, he mentored hundreds of people and always gave particular attention to Irish people who came to work for the commission.
Throughout his career, he also took on pro bono work. In the 1960s, he did important legal work in Ghana and his more recent work on Brexit with former UK prime ministers and Irish taoisigh, particularly on the sensitive issues concerning Northern Ireland, was also unpaid.
In 2016, he returned to live in Dublin with his partner of many years, Enda Mary Cogan. She had also retired from her work as a lawyer in Brussels. The couple bought a house in Donnybrook and Temple Lang continued to do consultancy work on competition law while sharing his vast knowledge of environmental legislation with a younger generation of environmental lawyers.
John Temple Lang is survived by his partner, Enda Mary Cogan, his children Ronan, Caitríona and Duncan, grandchildren Karl, Emma, Leah, Zoe and Jack. His stepbrother, Esmonde Temple Lang predeceased him.