Disadvantages of Judiciary

• Lack of Diversity in the Judiciary

  • despite the best efforts of the Judicial Appointments Committee
  • in regards to both gender and ethnicity:
  • female judges only make up 35% of the Judiciary, however account for 51% of the UK population, of that 35% women tend to fill lower/less paid roles: 42% of County Court Judges are female, 20% of CoA judges are female, suggesting difficulty for female judges to get recognition and promotion
  • BAME judges are not in proportion to the population of the UK, judiciary has approximately, 8% BAME representation compared the UK population of 18%, around 3% in superior judicial positions
• Narrow Educational Background of Judiciary

  • judiciary is still a disproportionately elitist institution lack in inclusivity
  • 65% of judges are privately educated: 71% studying at Oxford or Cambridge, highlighting disparity between those judging and those being judged
  • The Sutton Trust (2019) found the judiciary had the highest percentage of privately educated members of any profession in the UK, concluding that 'there remain barriers for many individuals aspiring to these roles
• Issues With the Independence of Judiciary

  • to achieve a balance, just system, the Separation of Powers is key, however, this has been challenged
  • R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the EU (2017) the Supreme Court held that leaving the EU and Proroguing Parliament was unlawful, this decision was attacked by the Government and Media who challenged the role of unelected judges, politicians (including the Prime Minister Boris Johnson) threatened to change the law so they could remove judges
  • shows the fragile, uneasy nature of judicial independence and how it could potentially be at the mercy of the government in the future
• It is a System which Detracts from the Democratic Process of Law Making

  • statutory laws are created by Parliament, the Legislature, on behalf of the people, the judiciary is there to enforce the law
  • however, unelected judges have the power of statutory interpretation which allows them to interpret Parliaments' laws as they see fit, regardless of Parliament's intention as seen in DPP v Cheeseman
  • unelected judges have the power to create laws under the Commission Laws rules of Judicial Precedent, in some instances these laws can be significant, such as the laws on Murder developed by Lord Justice Coke (1793), allowing this significant power to be used by unelected individuals could be seen as undemocratic and unfair and could potentially lead to inconsistencies in the law