Judging prisons

"As many of you will know, my previous job before this one was as Director of JUSTICE: dealing initially with those who claimed to have been wrongly imprisoned and then working, alongside some of you, on human rights and law reform issues, including the criminal trial and sentencing process."
Speaker: Anne Owers

Annual Lecture 2006 PDF format | 19 pages| 66KB

Annual Lecture 2005

'Lord Hope of Craighead gave the JSB's 9th Annual Lecture on 16 March 2005. His subject was 'Writing judgments'.

Annual Lecture 2005 PDF | 196KB

Annual Lecture 2004 - A Written Constitution?
The Right Honourable Lord Bingham of Cornhill

In Our Mutual Friend, Mr Podsnap felt able to tell the foreign gentlemen that “We Englishmen are Very Proud of our Constitution ….. It was Bestowed Upon Us by Providence”. Trollope took a similarly benign view of our constitutional arrangements:
“ At home in England, Crown, Lords and Commons really seem to do very well. Some may think that the system wants a little shove this way, some the other.

A Written Constitution? Word Format | 60KB

Annual Lecture 2002 - Judge, Jurist and Parliament
Professor Sir John Smith

Many years ago I was called upon to speak at a Nottinghamshire Law Society Dinner after Sir Jack Longland, a famous mountaineer and distinguished Director of Education. Seeing that I was to follow him, Sir Jack observed that academic lawyers always reminded him of doctored cats - interested in other cats or lawyers, as the case may be, but quite unable to do anything about it. This was typical of the attitude to law teachers 50 years ago when I began teaching law.

Judge, Jurist and Parliament PDF Format | 86KB

Annual Lecture 2001 - The Needs of the 21st Century Judge
The Right Hon. Lord Woolf
The Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales

For the last few years the justice system in this country has been subjected to unprecedented change. I sometimes think that the only thing that has not either changed, or is in the process of change, or the subject of a proposal for change, is the robes we wear. The system has stood up to the process extraordinarily well. The judiciary has also coped extraordinarily well with the changes imposed upon them.

The Needs of the 21st Century JudgePDF Format | 52KB

It is an honour for me to be here today to present your annual judicial lecture. My topic is federalism. I will focus upon federalist legal doctrines that govern the "relations of the States and the federal government" in America.

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Annual Lecture 1998 - Human Rights and The Judiciary
Professor Sir William Wade QC

When Lord Justice Henry suggested human rights as the subject of his lecture I though that he could not have given me a subject which was more topical and apposite.

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Annual Lecture 1996 - Judicial Independence
Lord Bingham, Lord Chief Justice

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the constitution of a modern democracy governed by the rule of law must effectively guarantee judicial independence.

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