RMO Relations between institutions

Question 1

Judicial independence - how it’s maintained

Answer 1

• security of tenure
• guaranteed salaries
• contempt of court an offence
• growing separation of powers
• independent appointments system
• training and experience of senior judges

Question 2

Judicial independence - how it’s threatened

Answer 2

• PM’s role in appointments
• parliamentary sovereignty
• Justice Ministry - popular politics interfering with sentencing
• cross-over of elites
• free speech/media

Question 3

Judicial neutrality

Answer 3

• Rule of Law - everyone treated equally, therefore important that judges are unbiased
• backgrounds: 43% female, 11% BAME, 75% Oxbridge, 60% private school - potential for bias
• two-tier sentencing row - set of guidelines suggested for judges to consider before sentencing - abandoned after Mahmood argued it threatened judicial independence

Question 4

Need for judicial reform 2005

Answer 4

Lord Chancellor - a Cabinet minister, speaker of Lords, Head of Judiciary, therefore member of all 3 gov branches
Appointment of judges - appointed by PM and Lord Chancellor, therefore considerable political influence
House of Lords - highest court of appeal, had a role in making and implementing the law

Question 5

2005 Constitutional Reform Act

Answer 5

Lord Chancellor - role retained, yet does not preside over Lords or court system, Lord Chief Justice head of judicial system - non-political role
Appointment of judges - Judicial Appointments Commission, eradicated political influence
House of Lords - 12 Law Lords removed to set up Supreme Court in 2009

Question 6

Ultra vires

Answer 6

Beyond one’s powers - courts can review whether actions or decisions taken by the government or any other public body are lawful, or whether they have acted beyond what the law legally allows them to do

Question 7

Supreme Court - case study

Answer 7

R (on the application of F and Angus Aubrey Thompson) v Secretary of State for the Home Department 2010
- 2003 Sexual Offences Act deems offenders with over 30 months in prison to go on a register for the rest of their lives
- respondents argued that this was against human rights due to Article 8 of ECHR (right to a private life)
- Supreme Court ruled that this was indeed the case, meaning the government reacted with a remedial order introducing a review process

Question 8

Judicial review

Answer 8

• type of court case whereby the claimant challenges the lawfulness of a decision made by a public body
• decision can be overturned on the grounds of illegality if the decision-maker did not have the legal power to make said decision
• can’t overturn primary legislation, but can overturn secondary legislation

Question 9

How civil liberties are protected

Answer 9

FOI
- considerable powers to citizens to see government papers, unless they are sensitive
- Expenses Scandal 2009 demonstrated significance
- denied includes number of citizenship deprivations by the government during the Shamina Begum case
HRA
- gov actions have to conform to ECHR - if primary legislation incompatible, declaration of incompatibility must be made
- eg 8 detained under Anti-Terrorism Act 2001, court declared this incompatible with the ECHR
- derogation - when the HRA is set aside

Question 10

Development of the EU

Answer 10

Customs Union 1951 - member states can trade without tariffs, however cannot then make separate arrangements with other countries
Single Market 1986 - Four Freedoms
Economic Union 1999 - responsible for economic development in EU eg grants, subsidies - marked switch in UK political system from Conservative to Labour support
Political Union 2002 - common foreign policy, negotiates with foreign powers as one unit

Question 11

Aims of the EU

Answer 11

• Four Freedoms - movement of goods, movement of services, movement of people, movement of capital
• EU Charter of Fundamental Rights 2000 - entrenches ECHR rights