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I asked former lord chief justice John Thomas about alleged judicial activism
He said the true fault lies with parliamentary process
“Attacking judges for activism is quite often concealment, or an excuse for not allowing proper parliamentary scrutiny” https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/interview-john-thomas-chief-justice-gina-miller-parilament-courts-judicial-activism
He said the true fault lies with parliamentary process
“Attacking judges for activism is quite often concealment, or an excuse for not allowing proper parliamentary scrutiny” https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/interview-john-thomas-chief-justice-gina-miller-parilament-courts-judicial-activism
In some areas, “work by judges has been encouraged, or has arisen, because of… the failure of the government to permit much of their work to be subjected to proper scrutiny,” he told me
“There has been a tendency for judges to look much more at subordinate legislation, whether it’s compliant with the powers granted to the government by parliament”
But “if parliament had been given the opportunity to look at it properly, these problems wouldn’t arise”
But “if parliament had been given the opportunity to look at it properly, these problems wouldn’t arise”
But going forwards, “If you look at any of the modern bills dealing with our exit from the EU, most of them are frameworks, and everything important will be done in delegated legislation”
That means the issues “will grow much worse”
That means the issues “will grow much worse”
While railing against legal decisions may be “convenient,” the government would do better to look at its “own position [and] the way in which legislation, particularly delegated legislation, is made”
He stressed: “It’s not parliament’s fault, because I do think an awful lot of people would like to have more scrutiny, but no one will amend the processes to allow this to happen”
Against this backdrop, any effort “to curtail any attempts by the judges” to remedy problems “is, to my mind, trying to promote the supremacy of the executive and make it unaccountable”
The government meanwhile is in the process of examining how the courts operate. “As if we haven’t got enough to be dealing with,” said Thomas.
“In my view at the moment it’s completely the wrong time”
“In my view at the moment it’s completely the wrong time”
Read the full piece here! https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/interview-john-thomas-chief-justice-gina-miller-parilament-courts-judicial-activism
