{"id":133,"date":"2012-03-22T10:54:15","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T10:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reading.ac.uk\/the-forum\/?p=133"},"modified":"2021-11-12T15:42:50","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T15:42:50","slug":"empowering-judges-to-speak-outside-the-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2012\/03\/22\/empowering-judges-to-speak-outside-the-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowering judges to speak outside the courts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawrence McNamara is an <\/em>ESRC Global Uncertainties<\/em><\/a> research fellow at the University of Reading where he runs the <\/em>Law, Terrorism and the Right to Know<\/em><\/a> project which includes interviews with several judges.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This piece first appeared in The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What should judges be able say outside the courts? One of the most senior judges, Lord Neuberger, has proposed some principles<\/a> for \u201cextra-judicial\u201d statements. The speech<\/a>, published this month, is an important one as these principles are likely to shape judicial contributions to public debate for some time to come, but do they go far enough?<\/p>\n

The starting point is familiar: it is \u201cquite inappropriate\u201d for politicians to criticise judges or their decisions. There must be \u201cmutual respect\u201d between ministers and the judiciary. If they \u201cslang each other off in public\u201d it undermines the constitution, democracy and the rule of law. While the frankness is welcome, the content is not overly surprising.<\/p>\n

But then Neuberger turns to what that means for the judiciary \u2013 and here it gets interesting.<\/p>\n

Mutual respect means ministers and judges \u201cmust respect the other\u2019s turf and not tread on it\u201d. It means judges should not \u201canswer back\u201d. It is \u201cunseemly and more undermining\u201d to do so. However, it does not mean that judges should not speak at all. On the contrary, Neuberger says extra-judicial comments have \u201cmore benefits than drawbacks\u201d. While he dictates caution and warns judges not to \u201cseek publicity for its own sake\u201d or to seek it for causes, his seven principles empower judges to speak.<\/p>\n

Neuberger is fundamentally right. The individual and collective experience of the judiciary, and their established constitutional role, means they should contribute to public debate about substance and processes of justice. The challenge is how they should do so without compromising the constitutional roles of any branch of the state.<\/p>\n

One path is obviously through judgments. This does not mean judicial activism but \u2013 this is different \u2013 judicial engagement. Judges have made pointed observations about any number of matters such as laws about police interviews, procedures in terrorism trials, or dealing with children who have committed serious crimes. For the public, the problem is many judgments are accessible. There are some excellent open databases of appeal judgments but the vast majority of trial judgments and sentencing remarks are unreported and unavailable to the public. It is time this was changed, especially if one takes the view that extra-judicial statements should be minimal.<\/p>\n

An alternative path is through speeches or written pieces. In the week the international criminal court delivered its first verdict<\/a>, \u2018Reflections of a Trial Judge\u2019 by Sir Adrian Fulford, leading judge in the Lubanga case and a high court judge, is an important contribution. Judges can articulate and explain from the horse\u2019s mouth how the judicial role works and what they see as key contemporary issues. The lord chief justice and Neuberger himself are exemplary speakers in this regard. The supreme court\u2019s mission includes promoting \u201cknowledge of the ways in which justice should be rightly administered.\u201d It is right that judges engage outside their judgments.<\/p>\n

Of course, judges across the land will not be reading Neuberger\u2019s principles and thinking, \u201cExcellent! At last I have some clear guidance about when I should speak and what I can say.\u201d\u00a0 In spite of a judicial appearance on Masterchef, judges will inevitably be cautious of any public engagement with audiences outside the legal profession. Most judges will remain cautious and silent, and probably rightly so. At the senior end of the spectrum, though, while they will choose their battles carefully, Neuberger may have laid the ground for some interesting and well-chosen comments in the next couple of years.<\/p>\n

Is there a point where judges would go too far? Or what might we be missing if they stop short? The justice and security green paper is a crucial contemporary case in point.<\/p>\n

The conventional position is that judges \u201ccannot comment on public policy\u201d but can comment on \u201cthe practical consequences of certain policy choices\u201d. We recently heard justice secretary Ken Clarke tell this to the joint committee on human rights<\/a> in evidence to its inquiry into the green paper proposals<\/a> for closed proceedings in civil cases.<\/p>\n

For Neuberger, however, judges do not seem quite so restricted. Where policy \u201cgoes to the heart of the functioning of the judicial branch\u201d then comment is not merely permissible, but there is arguably a judicial duty to comment. It might well be thought that closed proceedings, access to evidence and evaluation of evidence fall into that category. A judicial contribution to the justice and security debate would inform and enhance the process and policy choices that are made.<\/p>\n

In England and Wales there could be more use of representative bodies to convey judicial views, especially on contentious issues. This would\u00a0 avoid it falling to individual judges to give evidence to committees, which rightly concerns Neuberger. By contrast, this week the Judicial Conference of Australia<\/a> has made a submission on mandatory sentencing<\/a> that was requested by a parliamentary inquiry into proposed legislative amendments. It may be an approach worth considering more widely that would enhance the judicial contributions and avoid damage to the constitutional framework.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawrence McNamara is an ESRC Global Uncertainties research fellow at the University of Reading where he runs the Law, Terrorism and the Right to Know project which includes interviews with…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[452,505,527,867],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prosperity-resilience","tag-human-rights","tag-judges","tag-law-2","tag-terrorism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEmpowering judges to speak outside the courts - Connecting Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/research-blog\/2012\/03\/22\/empowering-judges-to-speak-outside-the-courts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Empowering judges to speak outside the courts - 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