In his penultimate election countdown article, Jon Robins reflects on the manifesto pleas from the Bar Council & Chancery Lane
It has now become a feature of general election campaigns that the legal representative groups publish their own glossy ‘manifestos for justice’ to vie with the offerings of the main political parties.
At the best of times, a proper debate about justice policies struggles for serious airtime in the run-up to an election; but when a single issue looms so large (Brexit), it seems likely that the special pleadings of lawyers will be drowned out.
The Bar strikes back
Nonetheless, it is in the face of such apparent indifference that lawyers gamely make their various pitches. Offering up its manifesto, The Value of Justice , the Bar Council reminds politicians of what it identifies as the ‘core values of our justice system’ and delivers a stern rebuke for their perceived failure to protect the ‘rule of law’.
‘The independence of judges has been attacked, and the defence of their independence was inadequate,’
