APPENDIX 3: PAPER BY PROFESSOR KATE
MALLESON: THE EFFECT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM ACT 2005 ON
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE JUDICIARY, THE EXECUTIVE AND PARLIAMENT
The Background to the Constitutional Reform Act 2005
The origins of the Constitutional Reform Act lie
in the expanding role played by the higher courts in the UK over
the last thirty years. The combined effect of the growth of judicial
review, the development of the EU and, most recently, the Human
Rights Act and devolution has been to give the courts a more central
place in the British constitution. The senior judges are now required
to police constitutional boundaries and determine sensitive human
rights issues in a way which would have been unthinkable forty
years ago. This new judicial role is still developing, but it
is clear that the effect of this trend will be to reshape the
relationship between the judiciary and the other branches of government.
In the light of these changes, the main provisions of the Constitutional
Reform Actreforming the office of Lord Chancellor, establishing
a new Supreme Court and restructuring the judicial appointments
processwere designed to bring the institutional relationships
between the judiciary and the other branches of government into
line with the changing substantive role of the courts. In particular,
the reforms were intended to secure the independence of the judiciary
by 'redrawing the relationship between the judiciary and the other
branches of government' and putting it on a 'modern footing'.
Although the timing of the introduction of the Constitutional
Reform Bill in 2003 took many by surprise, its content did not.
Concerns about the relationship between the judiciary and the
other branches of government had been building up over a number
of years. Where once there had been a general consensus that the
Lord Chancellor's three roles as member of cabinet, head of the
judiciary and speaker of the House of Lords enhanced the functioning
of the political system and strengthened judicial independence,
they increasingly came to be regarded as a potential source of
abuse of executive power.[90]
In particular, the Lord Chancellor's responsibility for appointing
the judges became a source of growing concern as the senior judges'
role in scrutinising government decision-making increased. Likewise,
the presence of the top appellate court in Parliament had once
been widely regarded as an effective means of drawing on the legal
expertise of the top judges during the law-making process so enhancing
the quality of legislation. By the 1990s, however, many Law Lords
themselves had come to regard the lack of separation between the
two as problematic as the same senior judges who participated
in passing the laws were increasingly asked to decide on the conformity
of those acts with basic human rights.
By the late 1990s, far fewer voices were heard in
support of the argument that these overlaps between the branches
of government were a source of its stability. Increasingly, the
interconnection was seen as endangering judicial independence,
breaching basic constitutional principles and out of step with
the rest of Europe. By the start of the second term of the Labour
Government in 2001, the long debate about these issues had slowly
generated broad support across the political spectrum for a 'clearer
and deeper' separation of the functions and powers of the judiciary
from the other branches of government. The decision to embark
upon extensive institutional reform was therefore anticipated,
but the provisions set out in the Constitutional Reform Act were
unusual in a number of respects. First, they ran counter to the
trend of recent political developments in that they represented
a conscious shift of power away from the executive. Second, they
were forward-looking, seeking to construct a new constitutional
model which anticipated future needs rather than responding to
an immediate perceived problem. In introducing the reforms the
Government made clear that there was no suggestion that the overlapping
constitutional roles of the Lord Chancellor or the presence of
the Law Lords in the House of Lords had, in practice, undermined
judicial independence but rather that the present system held
inherent structural weaknesses which might give rise to such abuse
in the future. The third surprising feature of the reforms is
that they explicitly sought to promote constitutional principle
above pragmatism.[91]
Whilst accepting that the previous arrangements had worked effectively,
the changes were designed to restructure the relationship between
the judiciary and the other branches of government so that it
would conform more closely to the concept of the separation of
powers. This elevation of principle above pragmatism is surprising
given the traditional value ascribed to 'what works' in the British
constitution.[92]
The Office of Lord Chancellor
Undoubtedly the most controversial element of the
reforms when introduced was the proposals relating to the office
of Lord Chancellor. The Bill initially proposed its complete reformulation
into the post of Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs.
After intense debate, this was amended so that the title and the
office of Lord Chancellor would remain, albeit in much reduced
form, and that the Lord Chief Justice should become the head of
the judiciary as President of the Courts of England and Wales.
The principal concern expressed over the removal of the title
of Lord Chancellor was that it would increase the threat to judicial
independence by removing its ability to simultaneously bring together
and keep apart the branches of government. Variously described
in terms of a link, a bridge, or a form of constitutional 'hinge'
a key element of the office was to facilitate understanding of
the position of the judges to the executive and vice versa. At
the same time, the role was also often characterised as being
that of a 'buffer'; holding the executive at arms length from
the judges: 'armed with a long barge pole to keep off marauding
craft from any quarter'.[93]
What is clear is that the retention of the title
of Lord Chancellor cannot preserve the very particular nature
of the office. Future Lord Chancellors will not enjoy the constitutional
status which previously attached to that office by virtue of its
position at the crossroads of the three branches of state. Not
only is the Lord Chancellor no longer head of the judiciary, she
or he need not be a member of the House of Lords nor even a lawyer
by background.[94] Lord
Chancellors have traditionally been drawn from an elite corps
of very senior lawyers respected or at least accepted by both
politicians and the judiciary. The future holders of the post,
in contrast, are very likely to be professional politicians and
may well be non-lawyers with limited affiliation to or understanding
of the role of the judiciary. But perhaps more significant in
terms of the impact of the changing role on the relationship between
judiciary and executive is the changing nature of the office in
terms of career hierarchy. In the past, the office of Lord Chancellor
was the pinnacle of a distinguished legal and political career.
This fact might have encouraged some to hang on to their place
on the woolsack longer than they should have done, but it had
the advantage that the occupant had nothing to gain or lose in
terms of promotion by standing up for the judiciary and suffering
unpopularity amongst his ministerial colleagues or even the Prime
Minister. In future the position will be very different. The Lord
Chancellor may be a mid-career politician inevitably looking for
promotion to one of the higher-ranking departments. Some occupants
may be first rate, others may be more mediocre. Either way, it
is unrealistic to expect that a passing minister, in post until
the next Cabinet reshuffle, will be willing or able to defend
the judiciary against attacks by more senior Cabinet colleagues
in the same way as Lord Chancellors have done in the past.
One way in which the Constitutional Reform Act sought
to address this problem was to reduce the danger of threats from
the executive by translating the political obligation on the executive
to respect judicial independence into a legal one by including
in the Act a provision that the Lord Chancellor and other ministers
involved in the administration of justice must respect judicial
independence.[95] A key
question is whether the provisions can of themselves ensure that
judges are protected from improper political pressure in their
decision-making on a day-to-day basis. In recent years there have
been a number of public expressions of conflict between Home Secretaries
and senior judges in the areas of criminal justice and human rights.
This has led to speculation as to whether judicial independence
is under threat and fears that the Constitutional Reform Act will
exacerbate this process by removing the protective role of the
Lord Chancellor. Whether or not these fears are founded depends
partly on the degree of conflict between ministers and judges
which is considered acceptable. Some senior judges themselves
have pointed out that a degree of tension between the executive
and judiciary is not only inevitable but healthy in a democracy.[96]
The difficulty is distinguishing the short-term ebb and flow of
the relationship between the executive and judiciary from long-term
dangers. Lord Irvine has reported that when Lord Chancellor he
had to argue in Cabinet in support of judicial independence on
'many, many occasions'.[97]
Nor is the need for such support likely to diminish. What is clear
is that dismantling the office of Lord Chancellor in its traditional
form will mean that new methods must be established for mediating
and negotiating the relationship between the two branches.
The Concordat
A key element of this new relationship is set out
in what has come to be known as the Concordat.[98]
Between 2003 and 2005 the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, and
the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, met regularly in private
to determine how the many roles previously undertaken by the Lord
Chancellor would be carried out.[99]
Their final agreement was incorporated directly in the Constitutional
Reform Act. Before 2005, it was generally unnecessary to articulate
whether the Lord Chancellor was acting in his judicial or executive
capacity when carrying out a particular function. It was not clear
whether, for example, decisions concerning the deployment of judges
were a task which the Lord Chancellor performed as the head of
the judiciary or a member of the executive. Under the terms of
the Concordat it is now explicitly established that this role
is for the Lord Chief Justice and therefore falls within the control
of the judiciary. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Concordat
was that it is not simply a carve up of power between the branches
of government but is intended to create a form of partnership
in which the two branches of government share in the decision-making
affecting the governance of the judiciary and the running of the
courts through the allocation of decision-making powers 'with
appropriate constraints and mutual consultation.'[100]
Most decisions concerning the management of the courts and the
judiciary are now formally ascribed to either the Lord Chief Justice
or the Lord Chancellor, but in almost all cases there is a duty
to consult with the other or obtain their agreement. For example,
the overall number of judges is to be determined by the Lord Chancellor
after consultation with the Lord Chief Justice because: 'real
and effective partnership between the Government and the Judiciary
is seen as paramount, particularly in this area'.[101]
Similarly, the Lord Chief Justice has responsibility for judicial
discipline but may only warn or reprimand a judge with the agreement
of the Lord Chancellor.[102]
What has been created is an institutional relationship which envisages
two separate but equal branches working together to manage the
courts and judiciary. How, in practice, this will work in the
future remains to be seen. The Concordat was drafted by two individuals
who shared similar career backgrounds, values and priorities.
Given the changing role of the office of Lord Chancellor, it will
need to be robust enough to function effectively in the context
of a Lord Chief Justice and a Lord Chancellor who stand very clearly
in different branches of the Government. For this new 'separate
but equal' system to work, substantial changes are therefore needed
to the governance structure of the judiciary.
The Governance of the Judiciary
The transfer of such a wide range of roles into the
sole or joint responsibility of the Lord Chief Justice requires
a major change in the nature of the judicial support system. Whereas
the Lord Chancellor has an entire government department at his
disposal, until recently the Lord Chief Justice has had only minimal
management and administrative back-up. The traditional approach
to judicial governance has been one which is informal and light-touch.
As the court system has expanded rapidly, the administrative roles
undertaken by judges have grown in an ad-hoc fashion. By and large,
senior judges have simply absorbed additional management roles
on top of their adjudicative functions on an ex-officio basis
with very limited administrative support. Nor has there been a
formal or permanent structure for collective decision-making within
the judiciary. This situation arose not simply as a result of
lack of resources or a failure by the judiciary to catch up with
the governance needs of a greatly expanded judiciary. Rather the
arrangements were partly a consequence of a particular vision
of judicial independence; one which prioritises the need for judges
to be free, not just of external interference, but of interference
from other judges. It was for this reason that Lord Taylor when
Lord Chief Justice objected to the introduction of performance
appraisal in the judiciary on the grounds that it would: 'clearly
endanger the fundamental independence of individual judges, not
only from the executive but also from each other' (emphasis
added).[103] Thus although
the judiciary is a rigidly hierarchical structure in terms of
the authority of adjudicative decision-making, it has always pursued
an ideal of a flat management structure in which the individual
judges retain the greatest possible degree of autonomy over their
working lives. Whilst in practice it has been recognised that
the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice were required to
make management decisions for the judiciary as a whole, this has
been regarded as a task performed by them as 'first among equals'.
For this reason, the judiciary has traditionally been highly sensitive
to claims that any senior judge speaks for the judiciary collectively.
Indeed, the notion that there is such a thing as 'the view of
the judiciary' is widely rejected by many judges who pride themselves
on the fact that the only area that judges agree upon is that
of judicial pensions.
Yet despite this strong culture of individualism,
the move to a more structured governance within the judiciary
had begun before the Constitutional Reform Act. By necessity,
the rapid expansion in size of the judiciary had led to the expansion
in the number and formality of senior administrative positions
with named and appointed posts such as the Vice President of the
Queens Bench Division, Deputy Lord Chief Justice, and the Head
of Civil Justice. Similarly, the Judges' Council, which until
relatively recently was a virtually moribund institution, has
been revitalised in order to play a central role in the new governance
structure. Because membership is drawn from all the different
levels of the judiciary, including more recently members of the
House of Lords/Supreme Court,[104]
the Council has the potential to play a vital role in representing
the interests of the judiciary as a whole. Equally important is
the newly formulated Judicial Executive Board made up of seven
senior judges which appears to be envisaged as a sort of judicial
Cabinet. It meets monthly and its core function is to enable the
Lord Chief Justice to make policy and executive decisions through
it. Administrative back-up will now be provided through a new
body, the Judicial Office of England and Wales which has 60 staff
including a communications office.
The relatively ad hoc creation of this governance
structure from a mixture of new and refurbished institutions raises
a number of questions about both judicial accountability and judicial
independence. What, for example, are the respective remits in
terms of policy-making of the Judges' Council and the Judicial
Executive Board? How do their roles relate to each other? Where
are the rules governing their powers and membership laid down?
Who determines these? What, for example, is the process for selecting
the representatives from each judicial level for the judicial
council? Are they elected or appointed? If the latter, what are
the criteria for selection and who chooses them? Clearly many
questions remain about the new judicial governance structure,
but what is certain is that the overall result of the changes
will be a greater concentration of power in the hands of the senior
judiciary. This outcome is probably inevitable and may also be
desirable as a means of securing judicial independence, but it
is not unproblematic both in terms of judicial independence and
accountability. These changes represent very real structural and
ideological changes within the judiciary.
The Judicial Appointments Process
Under the previous judicial selection arrangements
the power of appointment had, in practice, rested with the Lord
Chancellor who made his decision after consultation with the senior
judges. For appointments to the Court of Appeal and the House
of Lords, the decision formally rested with the Prime Minister
on the advice of the Lord Chancellor but the extent to which different
Prime Ministers engaged with the process was hard to assess since
the process of consultation between the Lord Chancellor and Prime
Minister was always regarded as confidential. It was in relation
to these upper rank judicial appointments that opinion was most
sharply divided over the new provisions. Many members of the judiciary
argued that it was essential to remove all executive involvement
in selecting the senior judiciary since it was at this level that
the pressure to manipulate would be greatest. Others argued that
it was precisely in relation to these appointments, where the
judges were engaged in high-level decisions with policy-making
implications, that there should be some real link to the democratic
process and that the Lord Chancellor should be more than just
a rubber stamp. Initially the Government supported the latter
view in relation to the Supreme Court appointments and the Bill
provided that the Supreme Court commission would nominate 2-5
names for the Lord Chancellor to choose from, so ensuring a degree
of political input. In the end, however, the Bill was amended
so that both the Supreme Court commission and the Judicial Appointments
Commission for England and Wales were given the ultimate decision-making
power, being required to recommend one name which the Lord Chancellor
could only reject in limited circumstances. The effect was to
remove the danger of improper political interference from the
system but it also removed the opportunity for democratic involvement
in the selection of public decision-makers.
One way in which the democratic deficit caused by
the removal of the executive from the appointment process might
have been countered would have been to include the legislature
in the process. Currently, Parliament plays no role in judicial
appointments, though it has the ultimate responsibility for removing
errant senior judges. This power relates solely to judges of the
High Court and above, who can be dismissed by the Queen if both
Houses of Parliament vote for their removal, though this is a
power which has only been exercised once.[105]
The proposal that judges could be called before Parliament as
part of the appointments process was considered by Parliament
during the passage of the Bill and rejected. One explanation for
this rejection lies in a widely held view of the US Senate confirmation
hearings as invading the privacy of individual candidates and
undermining judicial independence. Critics of this aspect of the
US judicial appointments process have argued that the highly partisan
nature of the process is such that the hearings can sometimes
be little more than a choreographed dance in which very little
useful information is revealed. However, the decision of the Canadian
Parliament to introduce nomination hearings for their Supreme
Court judges in March 2006 as part of a reform designed to reduce
party political influence, illustrates the growing awareness outside
the UK of the need to explore new ways to enhance democratic accountability
in the judicial appointments process whilst at the same time removing
political patronage. The debate in Canada which took place before
the hearings were introduced almost exactly mirrored that which
took place at the time of the passage of the Constitutional Reform
Act. The first Canadian parliamentary Supreme Court hearing was
widely regarded to have been a success and future hearings will
no doubt be watched with interest. It is possible therefore, that
this is an option that may be revisited in the UK at some future
date.
The other effect of the removal of any substantive
input from the elected branches of government into the judicial
appointments process was to increase the significance of the membership
of the new appointments commissions and in particular the role
of the lay members. Their function is a vital one in balancing
the interests of the legal and judicial members of the commissions
and mitigating the danger of cloning which inevitably arises when
appointment is made by those already doing the job. Since the
need for greater diversity in the composition of the judiciary
was a driving force behind the decision to establish the new system,
the lay members' ability to challenge established approaches and
develop innovative means of drawing high quality candidates from
beyond the traditional judicial backgrounds into the recruitment
pool will be a key measure of the success of the commissions.
In particular, the decision that the Chair of the Judicial Appointments
Commission for England and Wales would be a layperson was an important
step in establishing the central role of the lay membership. The
appointment of the highly respected former First Civil Service
Commissioner, Baroness Usha Prashar, as the first Chair of the
commission in 2006 is likely to ensure that the new system will
not be overly dominated by judicial and legal interests.
The Supreme Court
Whereas the provisions for the reform of the post
of Lord Chancellor and the judicial appointments process involve
an explicit redistribution of power between the branches of government,
those for establishing the new Supreme Court, in theory, do not.
The new court will exercise the same formal powers as the Appellate
Committee of the House of Lords and the devolution powers of the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and the first Supreme
Court judges will be the existing Law Lords. On the face of it,
therefore, the creation of the new Supreme Court is the least
radical aspect of the constitutional reforms. In practice, however,
the removal of the top court from the legislature and its reformation
as an autonomous institution is likely to have a significant and
long-term effect on its constitutional role. The current changes
need to be understood in the light both of the changing role of
the UK judiciary discussed above and also the development of a
global community of increasingly powerful constitutional and Supreme
Courts.
At a formal level, the most fundamental change to
the powers of the top courts in the UK in recent history was the
passage of the European Communities Act. This potentially dramatic
revision of the principle of parliamentary sovereignty was highly
controversial at the time. But in practice its effect has been
limited and its occasional application by the courts has not shaken
the constitutional foundations as critics feared. For supporters
of a traditional conception of parliamentary sovereignty, the
threat lies not in the growing role of the EU but closer to home
with the increasing domination of Parliament by the executive
and the knock-on effect this has had on the role of the judiciary.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the election of Governments with large
majorities in the House of Commons gave rise to claims that the
only effective opposition lay in the House of Lords and the courts.
Fears that the concentration of power within the executive might
threaten basic constitutional and political norms led members
of the senior judiciary to talk of a 'higher law' which would
require them to strike down legislation that sought to undermine
basic principles such as the rule of law. In 1994 the then Lord
Chief Justice, Lord Woolf made clear that if, for example, Parliament
'did the unthinkable' and removed the courts power of judicial
review he would consider it necessary to: 'mak[e] clear that ultimately
there are even limits on the supremacy of Parliament which it
is the courts' inalienable responsibility to identify and uphold.'[106]
However, having dipped a toe in these dangerous waters, the senior
judiciary then drew back from the brink. Lord Steyn articulated
a widely-held view in his statement that:
The relationship between the judiciary and the legislature
is simple and straightforward. Parliament asserts sovereign legislative
power. The courts acknowledge the sovereignty of Parliament. And
in countless decisions the courts have declared the unqualified
supremacy of Parliament. There are no exceptions...the judiciary
unreservedly respects the will of Parliament as expressed in statutes.[107]
But despite such assertions, it was never likely
that the genie could be put back in the bottle and in the intervening
years the underlying political conditions which gave rise to the
debate on the proper limits of judicial power have not changed.
Moreover, the passing of the Human Rights Act has significantly
increased the likelihood that courts will be called upon to consider
whether an Act of Parliament conflicts with a 'higher constitutional
law' giving the judges the role of applying principles of constitutionality
'little different from those which exist in countries where the
power of the legislature is expressly limited by a constitutional
document'.[108] In
2004 the question of how far courts might go when faced with such
a challenge to fundamental constitutional principles came close
to being tested when the Government proposed legislation which
would have removed the courts' jurisdiction in certain asylum
and immigration appeal cases. Senior judges and academics suggested
for the first time that the courts might be entitled to ignore
an Act of Parliament if the legislation was passed.[109]
As Lord Woolf asked: 'What areas of government decision-making
would be next to be removed from the scrutiny of the courts? What
is the use of courts if you cannot access them?'[110]
In response to such opposition, the Bill was amended. But the
underlying question of the limits to parliamentary sovereignty
was revisited in 2005 when the Appellate Committee of the House
of Lords was asked to rule on whether the Hunting Act 2004 passed
under the 1949 Parliament Act was a valid statute. While the Court
upheld the legality of the Hunting Act, it concluded that there
were indeed limits to the law-making power of Parliament:
In exceptional circumstances involving an attempt
to abolish judicial review or the ordinary role of the courts,
the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords or a new Supreme
Court may have to consider whether this is a constitutional fundamental
which even a sovereign Parliament acting at the behest of a compliant
House of Commons cannot abolish.[111]
This important judgment should be seen as the latest
step in the process of refining the notion of parliamentary sovereignty.[112]
What is clear is that the relationship between the courts and
Parliament is in a state of transition between parliamentary sovereignty
and constitutional supremacy.
To properly understand the nature of this evolution,
it is necessary to place the emergence of the Supreme Court and
the determination of its powers in the context of the wider trend
of increasing power amongst Supreme Courts and Constitutional
Courts around the world. What we are seeing is the emergence of
a global community of senior judges.[113]
They are drawn from countries with different court structures
and constitutional arrangements; some have the power to strike
down legislation and others do not. But increasingly they see
themselves as engaged in a global conversation about the interpretation
of basic human rights and the relationship between elected and
unelected branches of power. They read each others' judgments
and speeches; they meet at conferences and share thoughts on their
roles and functions. The UK Supreme Court will undoubtedly be
a leading and respected member of this community of top jurists
which is likely to have the effect of enhancing the new Supreme
Court Justices' views of their role. Exactly how the new Supreme
Court will develop is still uncertain. What is clear is that the
current trend around the world is for increasing power and authority
to be vested in Supreme Courts and the creation of an autonomous
Supreme Court in the UK, housed in its own building with an independent
budget and staff and a distinct identity is likely to follow that
trend.
The Future
A central question which arises in assessing the
implications of the Constitutional Reform Act concerns the nature
and degree of conflict between the judiciary and the other branches
of government which we can expect to see in the years ahead. The
idea of a partnership as expressed in the concordat may well provide
a basis for the future relationship, but it would be unrealistic
to expect it to be a partnership without tensions. The consequence
of a more active judiciary with greater autonomy will inevitably
be a more dynamic relationship between the branches of government
in which the judiciary have a more structured and active role
in defending themselves from criticism and ensuring that the proper
resources and support for the courts are in place.
The provisions of the Constitutional Reform Act have
an important role to play in establishing clearer boundaries between
the branches of government and taking the negotiations, tensions
and conflicts between them from the private corridors of power
into the public arena. The governance structure of the judiciary,
the role of the Supreme Court and the judicial appointments process
are areas of vital constitutional importance which need ongoing
scrutiny and debate. The effect of the reconstruction of the judiciary
as institutionally separate from but functionally interconnected
with the other branches of government will be to move the judiciary
closer to being a distinct third branch of government.
90 See K. Malleson 'Modernising the Constitution: Completing
the Unfinished Business' Legal Studies Spring 2004.
Back
91
LordChancellor'sDepartmentSelectCommittee,MinutesofEvidence,30June2003
. Back
92
Lord Irvine commented when Lord Chancellor: 'we are a nation of
pragmatists, not theorists, and we go, quite frankly, for what
works'. Evidence to the Lord Chancellor's Department Select Committee,
2 April 2003, Q 28. Back
93
Lord Hailsham, 'The Problems of a Lord Chancellor', The 1972 Presidential
Address, The Holdsworth Club, Faculty of Law, Birmingham University
pp 3-5 quoted in Lord Steyn 'The Weakest and Least Dangerous Branch
of Government' Public Law, Spring [1997] p 89. Back
94
The statutory qualifications for the post-holder require only
experience as a minister, member of either House of Parliament,
certain types of lawyer, legal academic or such 'other experience
that the Prime Minister considers relevant'. S 2(2) Constitutional
Reform Act 2005. Back
95
s 3(1) Back
96
Lord Steyn Op cit p 93. Back
97
LordChancellor'sDepartmentSelectCommittee,MinutesofEvidence,2April2003,Q29. Back
98
Parts 2 and 4 of the Constitutional Reform Act include the arrangements
set out in the Concordat. The full text of the Concordat can be
found in the government paper "Constitutional Reform: The
Lord Chancellor's judiciary-related functions: Proposals"
which was reproduced at Appendix 6 of the report of the Select
Committee on the Constitutional Reform Bill at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200304/ldselect/ldcref/125/12502.htm.
Back
99
This long private conversation was described by Lord Woolf in
the following in his valedatory speech in 2005 as one of 'almost
continuous dialogue' over two years. Royal Courts of Justice 29
July http://www.dca.gov.uk/judicial/speeches/lw290705.htm. Back
100
Lord Falconer commented that the Concordat: '
lays down
the right kind of partnership between the executive and the judiciary,
with clear roles for each within the framework of the separation
of powers of both.' HL Deb 12 February 2004 col 1216. Lord Woolf
similarly noted that: 'A spirit of partnership between the judiciary,
the legislature and the executive is essential if the judiciary
are to meet the changing needs of society'. Squire Centenary Lecture,
Cambridge University, 3 March 2004. See also speech of the Senior
Presiding Judge, Lord Justice Thomas, entitled 'The judicial and
executive branches of government: a new partnership' given in
2005. Available at http://www.dca.gov.uk/judicial/speeches/sp051110.htm. Back
101
Ibid p 11. Back
102
S 108(2) Back
103
From a speech at the London School of Economics, 27 July 1993. Back
104
SeeLordWoolf'scommentsontheresuscitationoftheJudges'Councilfrombeinga'semi-moribundinstitution.'CurrentChallengesinJudging5thWorldwideCommonLawJudiciaryConference,Sydney,Australia,10April2003.
Back
105
In the case of an Irish judge found to have embezzled court fees
in 1830. Back
106
1994 F.A.Mann lecture (published in [1995] PL 57, pp 68-69). Back
107
Lord Steyn, Op cit p 85. Back
108
R v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Simms
[1999] WLR 328. Back
109
See, for example, Jeffrey Jowell, The Guardian, March 3
2004; see also Lord Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, March 5
2004. Back
110
See n. 12 above. Back
111
Lord Steyn, para 102 Jackson and Others v Her Majesty's Attorney
General, [2005] UKHL 56. Back
112
LordJusticeSedley,forexample,talksaboutthebipolarsovereigntyofcourtsandParliament.'HumanRights:A21stCenturyAgenda'PublicLaw[1995]p389
. Back
113
AMSlaughterAGlobalCommunityofCourts,44HarvardInternationalLawJournal191(2003). Back
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