‘The Judicial Office has launched a pilot programme to improve the diversity of the High Court bench and encourage more applications from senior lawyers and legal academics.’
Litigation Futures, 9th April 2015
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘In 2009, when asked by the then Lord Chancellor to look at judicial diversity, Baroness Neuberger said: “Judges drawn from a wide range of backgrounds and life experiences will bring varying perspectives to bear on critical legal issues. A judiciary which is more visibly reflective of society will enhance public confidence.” Although it would appear that even 6 years later, not a lot has changed.’
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 9th March 2015
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
‘In April 2014 Sadiq Khan, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, asked Karon Monaghan QC and Geoffrey Bindman QC to review the options for a future Labour Government to improve diversity in the judiciary. On November 6th their report, entitled “Judicial Diversity: Accelerating change”, was published. Starting from the premise that “[t]he near absence of women and Black, Asian and minority ethnic judges in the senior judiciary is no longer tolerable”, it proposes a range of recommendations designed to speed up the glacial pace of change. Perhaps the most controversial of these is for the introduction of a quota system for women and BAME candidates. The report reviews the use of quotas in other UK institutions as well as their use in judicial appointments processes around the world, before addressing the question of whether such quotas would be lawful under EU law. This is a key question: EU law casts a long shadow in this context, as the Monaghan and Bindman report makes clear, given that any legislation enacted in Westminster to give effect to a quota system in the process of judicial appointments must conform to the requirements of EU law.’
Full story
UK Constitutional Law Association, 12th November 2014
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘There is to be a drive to recruit retiring law firm partners to the senior judiciary in a bid to improve diversity, it has emerged.’
Legal Futures, 14th November 2014
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘A quota system should be introduced to address the under-representation of women and ethnic minority judges, a major independent report commissioned by the Labour Party has recommended.’
Full story
Litigation Futures, 6th November 2014
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘One of the founders of the Black Solicitors Network (BSN) has called on the legal regulators to consider introducing quotas and targets to promote diversity.’
Law Society’s Gazette, 30th October 2014
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘The UK judicial system lags well behind the rest of Europe in terms of gender balance, according to a study of the relative efficiency of justice systems published on Thursday.’
The Guardian, 9th October 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘A career judiciary with fast-track promotion to higher courts may be required to overcome lack of diversity on the bench, the UK’s most senior judge has suggested.’
The Guardian, 17th September 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Britain’s only female Supreme Court judge says there needs to be more gender equality shown across Britain’s legal system and that by appointing more female judges the quality of justice could be greatly improved.’
The Independent, 27th July 2014
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘The lord chief justice admitted progress on diversity is too slow, while Chris Grayling’s offer of ‘partnership’ should be eyed warily.’
The Guardian, 10th July 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Women in the Judiciary (PDF)
Lady Hale
Fiona Woolf Lecture for the Women Lawyers’ Division of the Law Society, 27th June 2014
Source: www.supremecourt.uk
‘One of the changes introduced by the Crime and Courts Act 2013 was to amend section 63 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, which provides that the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) must select candidates for judicial office ‘solely on merit’. Schedule 13 of the 2013 Act clarified that making selections solely on merit does not prevent the JAC from recommending a candidate on the basis of improving diversity on the bench where there are two candidates of equal merit. This is variously known as the ‘equal merit’, ‘tie-break’ or ‘tipping point’ provision and derives from s 159 of the Equality Act 2010. After a consultation exercise last summer, the JAC last month published its policy on how it will implement the equal merit provision. In this post, we draw on research conducted as part of an AHRC-funded project on The Politics of Judicial Independence to explain why the JAC’s policy is disappointingly cautious, limits the prospect of further progress on diversity and offers further evidence of what we believe is the excessive judicial influence on judicial appointments.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 6th May 2014
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org
The City of London Solicitors’ Company (PDF)
Speech by The Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, Lord Chief Justice
Judiciary of England and Wales, 31st March 2014
Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk
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