The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

APRIL . 1993

The Solicitor - the Barrister - the Politician and the Judge

Addressing the Annual Dinner of the Council of the Law Society, former Chairman of the Bar Council of England and Wales, Lord Williams of Mostyn QC said: "There is a feeling of malaise and unease among large sections of the public in both our countries about the mechanisms and workings of the law and the legal system generally. In the United Kingdom there has been recent well publicised miscarriages of justice in the criminal sphere. Civil litigation is too slow, too burdensome and too expensive. There is little purpose or point in providing a Rolls Royce service which delivers the litigant, bankrupt, to his destination after five years, when most litigants would be happy arriving home at the end of the day by bus. As lawyers we spend our entire lives cross-examining and questioning other people about their practises. We need to turn the beam of the search light inwards upon ourselves. This is a watershed for the law. The undercurrent for change and reform is overwhelming. We can swim with it. One of the historic mistakes made by lawyers is to allow themselves to be seduced from their independence. The relationship between practitioners and the bench is too incestuous. The true relationship between lawyers and judges should be one of sceptical independence, and between lawyers and government one of armed neutrality. The legal profession in both our countries is so small that too cosy a relationship with the judiciary and government has grown up and been tolerated for so long. There are dangers there. Since the passing of the Courts Legal Services Act in 1972 solicitors have been eligible in England and Wales for appointment to the Circuit Bench. Many have been appointed. Civilisation as we know it has not come to an end. The solicitor

appointee has done just as well or just as badly as appointees from the Bar to the Circuit Bench. If a man or woman (nearly always a man) has the experience, expertise and qualities of character and temperament to carry out judicial work then in my opinion the mere fact that he or she is a solicitor rather than a barrister should be no bar. Indeed there is a sensible and respectable case, certainly in appellate tribunals, for the appointment of academic rather than practising lawyers. The above will demonstrate amply that I have no personal interest in judicial preferment. No solicitor judge has been appointed to the High Court in England and Wales. It is necessary for a solicitor to become a Circuit Judge as a pre-condition to appointment to the High Court Bench. I have no doubt that the first such appointment will be made within the next twelve months. The quality of the High Court Bench in England and Wales is very high. The High Court Judiciary is noted for intellectual rigour and distinction, political independence, and in particular financial incorruptibility. There has been no example in the last 20 years of appointment to the bench being seen as a political donation. There is very substantial consultation between the Lord Chancellor's department and the Bar about the appointment of judges. The leaders of all six Circuits are consulted about Assistant Recorderships, Recorderships and Circuit Judgeships. When it comes to the more limited number of possible High Court appointees the Bar is fully consulted and I am able to say, with confidence, that there has been no recent appointment to "We need to turn the beam of the search light inwards upon ourselves."

Lord Williams of Mostyn QC the High Court Bench to which the Bar could reasonably reject in terms of merit. In 1992 the present Lord Chancellor went a good deal further than his predecessors in agreeing that there should be reasonable consultation between his department and the incumbent Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Bar Council about appointments to the Court of Appeal and judicial appointments to the House of Lords. This means that all such appointments will be the subject of consultation in future including the appointments of Lord Chief Justice, Master of the Rolls, and Vice Chancellor. The Bar Council never looked for nor did the Lord Chancellor offer any sort of veto about individual appointments. What we have been asked for, and provided, is a sort of short list for the appointments that might become vacant in the next three years or so. This preserves the arm's length distance between the Judiciary and the Bar but does allow decent considered input from the Bar about these important appointments. I personally would like to see the process go further - the expansion (Cont'd on page 90)

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