Tag: Lord Sumption
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Richard Ekins: Representative Politics and the Limits of Law
This is the first of a series of posts in which Richard Ekins reflects upon Lord Sumption’s Reith Lectures. In his second Reith lecture, “In Praise of Politics”, broadcast on Tuesday, Jonathan Sumption aims “to make the case for the political process, with all its imperfections.” He develops a forceful argument for the capacity of…
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Conor Gearty: On Fantasy Island: British politics, English judges and the European Convention on Human Rights
My first encounter with the fantasies that underpin English public law came in the 1980s. I had just starting teaching constitutional law and was taking my first year students through Dicey: the independent rule of law; the availability of remedies to all, without fear or favour; the common law’s marvellous protection of civil liberties; how…
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George Letsas: Lord Sumption’s Attack on Strasbourg: More Than Political Rhetoric?
In a lecture delivered on the 20th of November, Lord Sumption, the United Kingdom Supreme Court judge, mounted a direct attack on the legitimacy of the European Court of Human Rights. The Strasbourg Court, he claimed, makes new law by continuously expanding the scope of the rights protected under the European Convention on Human Rights…
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Ruvi Ziegler: The missing right to vote: The UK Supreme Court’s judgment in Chester and McGeoch
On 16 October 2013, a seven-judge panel of the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) unanimously rejected two challenges (R (Chester) v Secretary of State for Justice and McGeoch v The Lord President of the Council & Anor and the judgment summary) brought by prisoners serving terms of life imprisonment against their disenfranchisement in UK national elections pursuant to…
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Anthony Bradley: The Work Of The Administrative Court
There are at least three reasons why constitutional lawyers must endeavour to keep abreast of the work of the Administrative Court and of decisions on appeal from that Court. Day by day, judges in that Court are required to review the use of executive powers and ensure that established principles of legality are observed by…
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Stuart Lakin: What Role Should Judges Play in the Constitution Justice Sumption?
In his recent F.A. Mann lecture Jonathan Sumption Q.C., the newly appointed member of the Supreme Court, took up the question of the proper role of judges vis-a-vis the political branches of government in the UK. Tom Adams has already provided a fine summary and analysis of the lecture in his January post. I urge…
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Tom Adams: Lord Sumption and Judicial Responsibility
Lord Sumption has for some time been an important man, and very recently became more important.[1] Indeed, he was too important already on the 9th of November 2011 for Lincoln’s inn, which reached capacity long before he read the opening lines of his F A Mann lecture. The lecture concerned a big question, quite possibly…