Lord Sumption, OBE, PC, FSA, FRHistS is a British author, medieval historian and former senior judge who sat on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2018. Sumption has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA). He studied Medieval History at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1967 to 1970. He was elected a fellow of Magdalen College, teaching and writing books on medieval history from 1971 to 1975 before leaving to pursue a career in law. Called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1975, he then pursued a successful legal practice in commercial law.

Sumption was sworn in as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2012. He retired from the Supreme Court in 2018. As a historian, Sumption wrote a widely praised history of the Hundred Years' War between England and France, four volumes have been published and the fifth volume is coming this year. He has written in detail about his concerns regarding the relationship between the judiciary and politics in several lectures and books, most notably his books Trials of the State: Law and the Decline of Politics (2019) and Law in a Time of Crisis (2021).