Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

Last month, Boston Consulting Group published a report that claimed to assess the effects of deregulating legal services in England & Wales, as driven by the Legal Services Act 2007. The analysis and conclusions are, to put it at its best, disappointing. I am grateful to have been spared the need to offer a detailed review, thanks to this informed critique of the report by Alison Hook.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that the report’s authors based some of their work on my independent review (Legal Services Reform: Regulation Beyond the Echo Chambers, published last year). However, having done so, their report could encourage others to take my principal conclusion – that further reform is needed – and, contrary to my intention, use it to amplify the echo within the chambers of my title.

These, therefore, are my summary observations:

First, I have…

Earlier this month, I was invited to give the Wickwire Memorial Lecture at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Canada. Frederick B. (Ted) Wickwire QC, a graduate of the School, was the President of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society. He died in office at the age of 52 in 1991.

Ted Wickwire was noted for his commitment to public service and to uncompromising professionalism. Each year, a lecture is held in his memory, focusing on an aspect of professional ethics.

It was a great honour to deliver this year’s Lecture, albeit with the constraints of virtual presence. The full text of the Lecture is available for download here.

The Lecture presented an opportunity for me to reflect on some of the underlying themes of my independent review of legal services regulation in England & Wales. In particular, I explored the emerging and increasingly uncomfortable tension between…

A second nation-wide lockdown is now less than 48 hours away.Many of our fellow citizens will as a consequence face unexpected and unwelcome legal issues, and I suspect many of their needs will be met through pro bono provision.

I was therefore honoured and delighted to offer some opening thoughts this morning to a very important and timely seminar hosted by LawWorks and the University of Bristol as part of Pro Bono Week.I was invited to share my reflections on the two-year Independent Review of Legal Services Regulation that I concluded in June and the associated landscape of legal professional ethics. Here are those reflections (also available as a PDF).

A guide to reading the Official Statistics on judicial review in the Administrative Court

By Lewis Graham, Lee Marsons, Maurice Sunkin and Joe Tomlinson

UKAJI is delighted to publish this guide written by Lewis Graham (University of Cambridge), Lee Marsons (University of Essex), Maurice Sunkin (University of Essex), and Joe Tomlinson (University of York) on how to read the official statistics from the Ministry of Justice on judicial review in the Administrative Court.

Specifically, this guide aims to help people understand what the official statistics tell us and do not tell us about the use of judicial review in the Administrative Court. The note draws on the civil justice statistics published annually by the Ministry of Justice. This note seeks to explain the available statistics in an impartial way with a view to making them easier to read and understand.

In light of the current Independent Review of Administrative Law…

Judicial review during the Covid-19 pandemic (Part I)

By Joe Tomlinson (University of York), Jack Maxwell (Public Law Project), Jo Hynes (University of Exeter), and Emma Marshall (University of Exeter).

This piece originally appeared on the Admin Law Blog on 26 May 2020 and can be found here. It is reposted with permission and thanks.

The COVID-19 pandemic raises at least two important questions for judicial review in England and Wales. The first is about process: how is judicial review operating in a time of social distancing, when most court processes have quickly shifted to a remote format? A second, related question is about litigation patterns: how are people using judicial review to challenge the Government’s response to COVID-19 itself?

In this two-part post, we offer some tentative answers to these questions. This first part examines how the Administrative Court’s amended judicial review procedure has been working in practice…

The Administrative Justice Council’s first Annual Report

On 6^th November, the Administrative Justice Council published its first annual report for 2018-19.

The Administrative Justice Council (AJC) was set up in March 2018 and is the successor body to the Administrative Justice Forum. It provides oversight and advice on administrative justice across the UK.  Chaired by the Rt Hon Sir Ernest Ryder, Senior President of Tribunals, the Council seeks to make the administrative justice system more efficient, fair and accessible.

The scale of administrative justice is vast, often called the ‘cinderella’ of the justice system.   It covers all government decisions, including complaints and appeals on immigration and asylum, social security, housing, education, health care, planning, and tax.

Over the year, the AJC has identified four key areas of focus: improving first instance government decision-making; the impact of the courts and tribunals modernisation programme; ombudsman reform and improving the relationship between…

This week’s turbulent political events represent the fallout from a referendum where the consequences of a ‘change vote’ were unclear. This is just one of many concerns raised about recent UK referendums. To reflect on such problems and consider possible solutions, the Constitution Unit established the Independent Commission on Referendums. Here Jess Sargeant and Alan Renwick summarise the Commission’s conclusions and recommendations.

The Independent Commission on Referendums has published its final report today. This sets out almost 70 conclusions and recommendations, all agreed unanimously by the 12 distinguished Commissioners, who span the major divides in recent referendums. The report is the product of eight months of discussion and deliberation amongst the Commissioners, backed by comprehensive Constitution Unit research into referendums in the UK and other democracies. The Commission has also consulted widely with experts and the public, including seminars in each of the four constituent countries of the…