Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Reform of the judiciary has made it a powerful check on the executive. How far do you agree with this statement?

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Transfer-Encoding: chunked ?Reform of the judiciary has made it a powerful check on the executive.? How far do you agree with this statement? The political function of the judiciary is to act as a check upon the executive by upholding the rule of law. The judiciary is there to prevent the arbitrary abuse of power by the government. In order to do this the judiciary must be independent of the executive or else it becomes an instrument of executive power, as in dictatorships. The history of the relationship between the executive and the judiciary in Britain is a complicated one. There have been some elements of that relationship that clearly sought to preserve judicial independence while others seemed to undermine the principle: the position of the Lord Chancellor is an obvious example. The idea that the executive should be separate from the judiciary was first mentioned by Montesquieu in Spirit of the Laws. Reforms introduced by the Labour government after 1997 had the express intention of increasing the independence of the judiciary: abolition of the position of Lord Chancellor; creation of a Ministry of Justice; establishment of an independent judicial appointments body; the creation of the Human Rights Act. ...read more.

Middle

Judges also face scrutiny from within their own profession. The legal profession is what is called self-regulating; their actions are scrutinised by the Law society. Lawyers are also not trained by the state as elsewhere in Europe. Judges must explain all their rulings in great detail. The Kilmuir Rules encourages judges to not be public figures. Moreover, the judicial appointments commission, which was established in 2006 after the 2005 Constitutional Reform Act, deals independently with the prospective appointments for the judiciary. They had previously been appointed by the Prime Minister, which was not very democratic as he could appoint judges sympathetic to his views. This has resulted in a number of very independent-minded judges emerging at senior levels. Many of these judges feel they do have a politically important role. Several of these judges are also willing to use the media to express their views. Furthermore, the EU has an impact on the ability of the judiciary to be a powerful check on the executive. The Social Chapter of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty transferred a lot control over employment and other social rights over to the EU. In these areas the UK judiciary is required to enforce such laws and interpret their meaning. ...read more.

Conclusion

Another reason why reform of the judiciary has not made it a powerful check on the executive is that Cameron has the power to veto decisions made by the Judicial Appointments Commission. However, this is a theoretical problem that had not yet occurred. The government retains control of the legal system through the Justice Ministry. This does not constitute direct control, but suggests a good deal of interference. Moreover, subjudice has been breached in the past. In recent years there has been an increasing tendency for politicians to enter into open political dialogue with judges over such issues as sentencing policy and the protection of rights. This may result in indirect pressure being placed on the judiciary. In 2007 the Home Secretary John Reid openly criticised the decision not to deport the murderer of head mast Philip Lawrence. Previous Home Secretaries have criticised the decisions releasing 9 Afghan hijackers in 2003 and for releasing terrorist suspects from Belmarsh prison in 2005. To conclude, the judiciary remains central to British politics and is vital if democracy is to be upheld. It is a powerful check on the executive for the reasons outlined in this essay, such as? It is a channel where the people are able to question the government and the reforms have made it even more powerful as a check on the executive. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level United Kingdom section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related AS and A Level United Kingdom essays

  1. To what extent are judges neutral and independent?

    This is in contrast to in the 1980s, when the majority of judicial reviews ruled in favour of the government, especially those regarding trade unions such as the GCHQ ruling which determined that security service members could not join a trade union.

  2. Discuss the indepedence of the UK Judiciary

    Britain, in theory sticks to the idea of a separation of the judiciary from the other two branches of government. The rule of law is a legal term which means no one individual has immunity from the law. A.V. Dicey a marvellous constitutional expert, referred to the 'rule of law' as underpinning the British constitution.

  1. How effective is Parliament as a check on the executive?

    Backbenchers within the governing party will usually tow the lie. They rarely speak out, criticise or rebel against Government policy even if they disagree with it. They will still vote for legislation they disagree with. Conservative and Lib Dem MP's will support the coalition even if their proposal goes against their own beliefs.

  2. What is the main reason for the loss of faith and interest in our ...

    I was also interested by the results of question 4: Which political party do you support? As you can see from the pie chart below the majority of those asked were supporters of the conservative party, closely followed by those who did not wish to share that information.

  1. The Vampires Attack As he walked up the rickety ...

    * * As the Prime Minister arrived at the meeting with the Minister of Defence he wondered what the news was that the Minister had been so excited about. There was a police van parked outside with a line of blood dripping out the back of it leading up to the door.

  2. How effective is the House of Commons as a check on the executive?

    They were not being seen to make an effort to control the executive. However, since the 2001 general election the number of rebellions has risen sharply. In November and December 2001 there were twenty two separate backbench revolts against the government's anti-terrorism, crime and security bill and the following month

  1. "Constitutional reform had gone too far, or not far enough?" Discuss

    A further constitutional reform that links to the previous point is the attempt at making boundary sizes more equal. This is to be done in order to achieve political equality, for votes. A prime example of this is the Isle of Wight which has one representative for the entire area.

  2. Explain two criticisms of judicial review as a check on the executive.

    Secondly, in the majority of cases reviews find in favour of the executive due, some would argue, to a pro-executive stance on the part of judges. In 2011, it was 174 victories - that's 16 out of every 1,000 cases.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work