Constitution Unit Conference 2024: Rule of law

The role of courts and judges has been controversial in recent years, with criticism of both domestic judges and the European Court of Human Rights. Several government bills have raised difficult questions about the respective roles of government, parliament, and the courts. Has the rule of law been undermined by recent trends in policymaking or political discourse? If so, what should be done to bolster and protect it in the future?

This panel was the third of the Constitution Unit Conference 2024: Constitutional Priorities for the Next Government.

Speakers:
Lord (Jonathan) Sumption – former Justice of the Supreme Court
Baroness (Shami) Chakrabarti – Labour peer, former Shadow Attorney General, former Director of Liberty, and author of Human Rights: The Case for the Defence
Jonathan Jones KC – former Treasury Solicitor and Permanent Secretary of the Government Legal Department

Chair: Professor Kate O'Regan – Director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford, and former judge of the South African Constitutional Court