Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

In this podcast I talk to Robert Musgrove. For a number of years Robert has been the Chief Executive of the Civil Justice Council. He has led a number of important initiatives which seek to build on the philosophy of Lord Woolf’s reform of the civil justice system – that while there should be as much access to justice as possible, costs must be kept proportionate, alternative dispute resolution should be used where possible, and that there need to be changes in ‘litigation culture’.

Listen to this audio file of Robert Musgrove:

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In this podcast, I talk to Mavis Maclean, a well known empirical legal researcher who has for many years integrated her research work with policy development in Government. As Director of the Oxford Centre for Family Law and Policy, she has played a major role in helping to shape ideas about how the family justice system should be developing. (For more information about OXFLAP see http://www.spsw.ox.ac.uk/research/groups/oxflap.html)
In the podcast she talks generally about how family justice has developed, both in England and Wales and elsewhere, and she offers insight into the newly established review of family justice – also mentioned by Ken Clarke in his speech (see related blog).

Listen to this audio file of Mavis Maclean:

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In this podcast, I am talking to Dame Hazel Genn, QC. Among her many activities, she is a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission. In this interview she offers insight into how the JAC is changing the culture of how appointments to the judiciary are made. Acknowledging that the new approach is uncomfortable for some lawyers, she is confident that in the not too distant future its work will be accepted as leading to more openness in the process and more diversity in outcome.
Listen to this audio file of Hazel Genn:

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In this podcast I interview Richard Thomas, Chair of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council. It takes further the discussion of the work of the Council in Chapter 6.

In this podcast I talk to Michael Naughton, who founded the UK Innocence Project. This is a charity which enables law students in many law schools to help investigate possible miscarriages of justice. Based on an initiative that started in the USA, information about the UK network can be found at http://www.innocencenetwork.org.uk/. Listen to this audio file of Michael Naughton:

Download the MP3 here