Where should judges fit into public life? It’s an age-old question but one that has been more pressing since the 1960s thanks to, among other factors, a more activist bench, the expansion of judicial review, entry into the Common Market and the Human Rights Act.
It’s a theme Jonathan Sumption QC (pictured) took on in a speech this week, which mounts a broad critique of the willingness of some judges to step beyond their role of applying the law as set down by Parliament to interfere with underlying policy decisions. As you’d expect from one of our most celebrated advocates, Sumption makes a good case, rightly noting the inherent difficulty of separating the determination of a policy’s lawfulness (which judges are supposed to be concerned with) from its merits (which they are not).
