Lady chief justice calls for justice system to be opened up to greater scrutiny, research and testing

The justice system should be opened up to greater scrutiny by researchers, the lady chief justice has said in a speech that suggested a Royal commission promised in the 2019 Conservative election manifesto should be resurrected.

Delivering the Kalisher Lecture at the Old Bailey yesterday, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill said more studies and testing by a wider range of researchers were needed to nurture the justice systems, especially the criminal one.

‘Just as summary jury trials in the US provide a basis on which to scrutinise the utility and accuracy of civil juries, scrutiny of criminal juries here will – I have no doubt - demonstrate the robustness of the criminal jury trial,’ Carr said.

‘It will also enable us to learn how we can improve jury decision-making, just as the summary jury trial could provide the means to test and learn how to improve civil jury trials. This type of scrutiny is one way in which we can try to embed a culture of continuous reflection and learning into our criminal justice process.’

However, Carr went on to suggest that a Royal commission on criminal justice should be set up, recalling that it was part of the Conservative party’s 2019 election manifesto.

Work on the commission was paused during Covid and subsequently kicked into the long grass.

Carr said: ‘As Professor Ormerod [chair in criminal law at UCL] has pointed out, a commission could examine resourcing. It could examine all those aspects that were last comprehensively and holistically examined by the Runciman Commission in 1991. It could revisit questions left over from the Auld Review, such as whether to move to a unified criminal court. It could consider victims, not least where restorative justice is concerned. It could look to build on the success that has been the Sentencing Code by taking steps towards the development of a criminal code. And it could look at reform in the light of digitisation. And much more.’

This article is now closed for comment.