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Election 2019: the countdown (Pt 2)

05 December 2019 / Jon Robins
Issue: 7867 / Categories: Opinion
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In the run-up to next week’s election, Jon Robins focuses on the parlous state of our justice system

We’re going to have a Royal Commission. At least, we might if the polls are correct and what confronts us on 13 December is a Boris Johnson majority Conservative government. The last Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, more than a quarter of a century ago, was established on the very day that the Birmingham Six walked out of the Old Bailey as free men after 16 years wrongly convicted.

Boris Johnson’s commission, as outlined in the Conservative 2019 manifesto published last week, will be a different beast. The so-called Runciman Commission was the establishment’s belated and begrudging recognition of a crisis caused by the collapse of public confidence in a system shaken by a series of miscarriage of justices.

It is uncontroversial to observe that our justice system is now in crisis albeit of a different kind. Even Tory Lord Chancellors have been forced to acknowledge the dire state of the courts. Michael

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

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Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

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NEWS
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Rylatt and Robyn Laye of Anthony Gold Solicitors examine recent international relocation cases where allegations of domestic abuse shaped outcomes
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