BEACON SOCIAL CARE ADVOCACY
  • Purpose
  • Profile
  • Services
  • Client Feedback
  • Contact
  • Details
  • Blog: Reflections
  • Art of Play
  • CV

Reflections

Law in what kind of action?

17/3/2017

0 Comments

 
The BBC Radio 4 programme recently dedicated 2 editions to the issue of appreciation of Judges - the type they apparently do not feel, the reason why there are so of them. I felt there was untypically more description than analysis in the programme. While Joshua Rosenberg stated that the appointment of p/t Judges - less experienced - can be a creating an issue of less quality as the are less experienced, on the reasons why there were so few applications for, if I remember correctly, almost 25% vacancies for High Court Judges, there seemed little clarity. Repeatedly, it was mentioned that there had been some pension cuts... Is that the whole picture, I wonder. Maybe I lack the imagination, but it seems difficult to comprehend that at a quite nice senior level of appointment this would be such an important point - unless the legal profession has so thoroughly been diverted to put commercial profit over - securing justice? With my little experience in civil proceedings over the last 5 years, I can't help wondering whether a missing link is not to be found in a speech by Mr Mostyn, a Judge in Family Court, a few years ago and published on the ministry of justice web site: He said "It is not the Judges' job to follow their preferences but to apply the Law." Ouch. Had I, as a lay person, not experienced how it can happen that a lesser experienced Judge may come to set aside complex and tiresome evidence to follow his 'preferences', I would have thought that quote simply left-wing propaganda. However, I think Mr Mostyn's implicit analysis points to a deeper issue. It seems to me the introduction of the HRA indeed creates a climate where Judges' decisions have to be accountable to principles of law over their - undoubtedly educated - opinion. That, from the inside, may feel as 'not being appreciated'''. If there is some truth in this thought, and I hope I am wrong, then it may take more than a new round of appointments to secure quality of Justice. It may take education of yet another generation of lawyers in order for them not only to live the principle of accountability (versus closing ranks?), but also to appreciate the widely and internationally recognised principles of Human Rights to be respected for what they are: Safeguards - and that includes full appreciation for policies introduced since the HRA such as No Secrets Act, Disability Discrimination Act and similar - intended, it seems to me, to truly embed the principles behind Human Rights in the British society, as a democratic society.
www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/bristol-speech-08-12-14-edited.pdf
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.



    ​

    Author:

    Barbara Schaefer, Social Care expert, Action Methods/Drama Practitioner,Contemporary Theologian - attempting a deep look at issues of social justice:

    Archives

    January 2021
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    October 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    September 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.