Tag: Judicial Independence
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Luke McDonagh: What Future for the Rule of Law and Human Rights in the New Populist Environment?
Introductions When I teach UK constitutional law to my students we often discuss the relationship between UK parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law, and the tensions that inevitably occur in a liberal democratic society between the ruling executive/legislature and the judiciary. One thing that is readily apparent is that these tensions – which have…
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Weekly round-up of events
Editors‘ note: We are pleased to announce that for ease of reference event announcements will now be publicised cumulatively in a weekly post on Friday afternoons. We continue to welcome submissions advertising constitutional law events. This week’s event announcements include: “The Paradox of Judicial Independence: Greater separation requires closer engagement between government and Judiciary”, half day…
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Patrick O’Brien: How active were pre-2009 judges as parliamentarians?
(Click on graph for bigger image) Is the question of anything more than historical interest? The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 precluded judicial peers from contributing to parliamentary debate from 1 October 2009. Many of the Law Lords were opposed to the change, and many judges are at least nostalgic for the past arrangements. The…
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Graham Gee: Do Lord Chancellors defend judicial independence?
As part of its inquiry into the office of Lord Chancellor, the Constitution Committee asks whether “new” (i.e. post-2003) Lord Chancellors have actually defended judicial independence in line with their customary and now statutory duty to do so. I was asked for examples earlier this summer when appearing before the Committee (with Andrew Le Sueur…
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Dawn Oliver: Does treating the system of justice as a public service have implications for the rule of law and judicial independence?
If you asked a second year LLB student, or even a professor of public law or a legal practitioner, ‘what are the most fundamental functions of judges and the system of justice?’ you would probably get ‘doing justice to all without fear or favour’ and ‘upholding the rule of law’ among the most common answers.…
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Derek O’Brien: Judicial Independence in the Caribbean and Petitions Pursuant to Section 4 Judicial Committee Act
The case of Chief Justice of the Cayman Islands v The Governor and Judicial Legal Services Commission ([2012] UKPC 39) is, arguably, at least as interesting for the questions that the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) did not answer as for the ones that it did and I will, therefore, address both in…
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Anitta Hipper: In Hungary’s Footsteps: Different Victor, Same Strategy
On January 1, 2012 with an amended Constitution in place, a once praised EU accession candidate, Hungary, proved that rule of law and consolidated judicial institutions are not at all irreversible. A new shift of power allowed Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister and the FIDESZ government to silence the Hungarian Constitutional Court, one of…