It is with tremendous sadness that the editors record the passing of one of our ICLQ editorial board members, Professor John Usher. John was an invaluable member of the editorial board of the Quarterly for over 22 years, offering his penetrating views on a wide range of EU scholarship. The quality of our published EU material is a direct consequence of John's tireless efforts on behalf of the Quarterly. He will be sorely missed as a friend, scholar and colleague.
John Usher's glittering career as a scholar spans the entirety of the United Kingdom's period of membership of the EU. He was without doubt regarded throughout that time as belonging to the front rank of writers on EC, lately EU, law, and he holds a prominent and hugely important place in the shaping of EU academic law in this country—and beyond. Put simply, were it not for John's quiet but generous and always positive influence, the texture of EU law scholarship today would be thinner and blander. He was duly and properly honoured: as an Honorary Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1993, as an Honorary Jean Monnet Chair of European Law (ad personam) by the European Commission in 1997, and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1998. These were fitting tributes to great achievements. His pioneering work is of enduring importance but most of all his commitment to analytical rigour will continue to inspire. He wrote in key areas of constitutional development, especially in the field of the emergent general principles of EC law, he wrote with deep insight and balanced judgement on thorny institutional matters and he wrote with precision in areas in which most EU lawyers fear to tread—his books on agriculture and the law of money represent magnificent scholarship in the most forbiddingly complex of contexts. John possessed a gift for clarity of expression and exposition, but he never yielded to any temptation to oversimplify. His was and is scholarship of the highest quality.
If the depth and detailed precision of John's writing was formidable, in person he was anything but. He was the kindest and gentlest of men. Colleagues and students at Exeter, Edinburgh, UCL, and Bruges as well as the European Court itself will have their own particular recollections of his extraordinary ability to advise and encourage in a manner that was always clear and constructive but never overbearing. The trio whose names are appended to this tribute began their postgraduate studies under John's leadership in Edinburgh in 1982. We all owe him so very much. His concern for precision and attention to detail was delivered by example, not by dictation, and was all the more inspirational as a result. He was a truly remarkable and unforgettable man.
