By what process of selection is the external examiner selected for marking of your final thesis?
I am starting to worry about this since the options for my subject ( in Soc Sci) are quite limited, because of the area of expertise. I have almost certainly referenced 2 of the people most qualified for the job.
I hae actually been fairly complimentary without being sickly or sucky up, but obviously my work will encrouch on their territory.
What are people's expereiences or knowledge of this?
Thanks.

Your supervisor and you can suggest candidates for external examiner but they may not have had a very serious involvement with your PhD work BEFORE marking your thesis and viva (e.g. if somebody has already read your work and given you feedback, s/he is not elligible).

Of course, referencing potential candidates for examiner is very important and more important- not to be too critical on them in your thesis.:)

Thanks everyone. This is all very useful & interesting.
The exact reason I asked is that someone I have in mind I am due to hear speak at a conference in a few days and I was wondering about introducing myself and smoozing abit ( but not mentioning the external examining thing). I am still collecting data so all this is over a year away - but this is my first and maybe only chance to meet the person concerned and try to make sure they know I exist & (ahem) am a wonderful, motivated, thoughtful and thought provoking individual....

While it is usual for the examining panel to be provisionally selected by the student and supervisors, ultimately the examining panel must be approved by your Uni's research degree committee. They will look at such things like whether the proposed team have enough experience of examining at PhD level. Have they recently examined a PhD at your Uni (in which case they may not be able to examine another for a while)? Are any of them registered for research degrees themselves (again, usually ineligible)? Have any of them advised on any aspect of your project?

Another thing to consider is getting the balance right - this is especially important if your project is multidisciplinary i.e. you wouldn't want both (or all in the case of >2) to specialise in one area and have no one to examine the other aspects of the thesis.

It is a joint student-supervisor decision so your supervisor should be able to help

I picked my main examiner. My supervisor picked the second.