Courts, Legitimacy and the Rule of Law

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-445
Author(s):  
Shaheed Fatima
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
The State ◽  
Judicial Discretion ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Media

The role of courts as lawmakers has been scrutinised, partly because of the questions it raises regarding legitimacy. This scrutiny has sometimes assumed that courts are safe from legitimacy-based criticism in their role as appliers of law. However, recent events in the United Kingdom show that, regrettably, this is not so: the media reaction to the judgments in the Brexit case of Miller went far beyond criticism of the courts’ reasoning or conclusions. It was an attack on legitimacy. Insofar as such attacks arise out of misunderstandings about the nature of adjudication (including, for example, the existence and scope of judicial discretion), one way of countering them is for the legal community (scholars, judges, practitioners) to continue to increase public awareness about these issues. However, it is incumbent upon other parts of the state – the executive and the legislature – to respond promptly to such attacks in order to uphold the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law.

The Judiciary and the Media

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-513
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Independent Judiciary ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Relationship

I am an English judge speaking in Jerusalem at a lecture to honor the memory of an Englishman who was the first member of the English Jewish Community to be appointed to the House of Lords, now the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. That was 60 years ago in 1951. So this is an important anniversary.This evening, I am seeking to highlight some of the issues that relate to the role of the media and the role of the judiciary in upholding the rule of law, and the interaction of their relationships in a democratic society that respects the rule of law. My experience is British, but my intention is to address questions that arise in any civilized democracy. The essential principles are unaffected by geography.My overwhelming belief is that the most emphatic feature of the relationship between the judiciary and the media is that the independence of the judiciary and the independence of the media are both fundamental to the continued exercise, and indeed the survival, of the liberties that we sometimes take for granted. I have said before, and I do not apologize for saying it again, these are critical independences, which are linked but separate. As far as I can discover, there never has been, and there is no community in the world in which an independent press flourishes while the judiciary is subservient to the executive or government, or where an independent judiciary is allowed to perform its true constitutional function while, at the same time, the press is fettered by the executive.

Citizen-led digital policing and democratic norms: The case of self-styled paedophile hunters

2019 ◽  
pp. 174889581988095 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katerina Hadjimatheou
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Citizen Involvement ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Democratic Norms

Citizen involvement in the provision of security is often presented as a win–win way to relieve pressure on police resources while building stronger, more responsible and democratically engaged communities. Governments in countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have adopted a ‘strategy of responsibilisation’ designed to encourage, enable and support citizens to take on tasks otherwise left for police. Yet, this strategy conspicuously ignores the growing number of citizen-led digital policing initiatives which operate independently without the encouragement or guidance of police. This article considers the implications of this trend for democratic norms in policing. It uses the phenomenon of self-styled paedophile hunters – which are now active in countries around the world – as a case study. The article makes comparisons between such initiatives and other, relatively well-theorised informal security providers, such as vigilante groups and civilian policing. It argues that, like vigilantes, citizen-led digital police often challenge democratic principles of transparency, accountability and the rule of law. Yet, like other civilian policing initiatives, they increase empowerment and participation, and rely for their success on the presence of strong and legitimate institutions of justice, to which they ultimately defer. These characteristics present a discreet set of opportunities and challenges for contemporary policing, which this article argues can only be addressed by strategic police engagement.

Constitutional Developments in the United Kingdom

2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Williams
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
Authoritative Text ◽  
University Of Oxford ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
The University

In hisIntroduction to the study of the Law of the Constitution, which appeared in its first edition in 1885, Professor A. V. Dicey of the University of Oxford emphasized in particular the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty and the concept of the Rule of Law as guiding principles of the constitution. His exposition was clear and trenchant, inspired by the self-confidence of late Victorian Britain, and through nine editions it provided the authoritative text which to this day has influenced judges and lawyers, politicians, observers from abroad, and many others in their interpretation of the constitutional law of the United Kingdom.

scholarly journals The role of rule-of-law institutions in ensuring information security of Ukraine

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (39) ◽  
pp. 238-244
Author(s):  
Serhii Bratel ◽  
Nataliia Makarenko ◽  
Valentyn Bortnyk ◽  
Yurii Levchenko ◽  
Andrii Mykytchyk
Keyword(s):  
Information Security ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Cyber Security ◽  
The State ◽  
Structural Method ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Logical Method ◽  
Grouping Method

The purpose of the article: is to study the threats to the information security of Ukraine and to analyze the legislative acts that define the tasks and functions entrusted to rule-of-law institutions to ensure information security of the State. Research methods: Logical method, normative and dogmatic method, monographic method, system and structural method, grouping method, the method of generalization are applied in the course of the study. Results of the research. Scientific approaches to the concepts of "information security", "cyber security" and "rule-of-law institutions" are considered. The threats to legal relations in this area are identified. Practical meaning. The role, mission and powers of the rule-of-law institutions in ensuring information and cyber security of Ukraine are established. Scientific novelty. The normative and legal acts, which enshrine the tasks and powers of rule-of-law institutions in ensuring the information security of the State in general and cyber security in particular, are analyzed in detail.

the wishes of the Government expressed in the form of legislation, or the extent to which it can interfere with the pursuit of those wishes. Until now it has been a commonplace of political thought that although the United Kingdom might not have a written constitution its unwritten constitution was nonetheless based on fundamental principles. Amongst these principles were the sovereignty of Parliament and the Rule of Law. The centrality within the United Kingdom constitution of the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty has traditionally meant that Parliament can make such law as it determines, but the validity of such an interpretation has been questioned by some. The justifications for such challenges to absolute Parliamentary sovereignty are based on the United Kingdom's membership of both the European Union and the Council of Europe with the implications of higher authorities than Parliament, in the former's legislation and the latter's endorsement of inalienable individual rights. As for the Rule of Law, although it is a notoriously amorphous concept, it has provided the courts with scope for challenging the actions of the executive and, indeed, to a more limited degree, the legislature. The mechanism through which the courts have previously exercised their burgeoning constitutional and, by definition, political role is judicial review by means of which they have asserted the right to subject the actions and operations of the executive to the gaze and control of the law in such a way as to prevent the executive from abusing its power. However, such power has been greatly extended by the enactment of the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998. The Act only came into effect in October 2000 so the question remains as to how the courts will use the powers given to them under that Act. The remaining articles in this chapter will consider the wider political context within which the judiciary operate as well as focusing on the Rule of Law and the HRA 1998. In an article 'Law and democracy', published in the Spring 1995 edition of Public Law, Sir John Laws, Justice of the High Court, Queen's Bench Division, considered the appropriate role of judges within the constitution from the perspective of the judge (footnotes omitted).

2012 ◽  
pp. 54-65
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Parliamentary Sovereignty ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Control
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