On 11 May the Deputy President of the Supreme Court, Lord Hope, joined former Home Secretaries, Jack Straw, MP and Charles Clarke at the Queen Mary, School of Law Lincoln’s Inn Fields site to debate the relationship between the judiciary, the executive and Parliament. Topics discussed included whether the system for selecting Supreme Court Justices needs to be changed by drawing Parliament in the process and whether senior judges should be willing to discuss with politicians the human rights implications of legislative proposals.
The seminar was the first in a series being organised under the auspices of a three year AHRC funded project on ‘The Politics of Judicial Independence in Britain’s changing Constitution’. The research is being undertaking jointly by Queen Mary, University of London, University College London and University of Birmingham. Full details can be found on the project’s website www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit where a summary of the seminar discussion will be placed in the next couple of weeks.