Lord Reed's Dubious Legacy
In last week’s episode of the podcast I ended by talking about the Judicial Review and Courts Bill that was much less innocuous than many legal commentators had previously feared. My argument was that while this was a good thing, proper legal journalism required an investigation into why the government had retreated from its earlier position.
Digging a little deeper into recent comments from the Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland QC MP, it is clear that he now considers the courts (and, in particular, the Supreme Court under Lord Reed) to not pose any sort of threat to government power. Recent decisions from the Supreme Court also seem to back up this assertion.
Of course the neutering of the courts is a terrible thing and bad for our democracy. Judges are supposed to be a thorn in the side of the executive and hold them to account when they overextend. This point has now been made with greater force by Nicholas Reed Langen over at The Justice Gap in his article ‘Under Lord Reed, the court has retreated into itself’. Talking about how the Bill has been defanged he concludes:
“Yet this is little solace when you consider that this legislation is only so benign because judges are unwilling to use the authority they already have to defend the British constitution and to check an overpowerful executive.”
If you get a chance to do so then I recommend checking out the full article.
My own podcast this week is about the economic tort of causing loss by unlawful means. After a pharmaceutical company allegedly got a patent under false pretences to make more money, the government took them to court but at stake are some of the broader principles of tort law.
Episode link: http://uklawweekly.com/2021-uksc-24/
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Marcus