Title

Drawing Lessons from the U.K. Constitutional Reform Act of 2005

Author(s)

Terence J. Lau, University of DaytonFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-14-2013

Publication Source

Fordham University Urban Law Journal City Square

Abstract

In this City Square dialogue, Professor Judith Maute provided the initial spark in her important 2007 article on reforms to judicial selection in the United Kingdom.[1] In her article, Professor Maute outlined the breathtaking and daring changes implemented in the U.K. that upended centuries of tradition to modernize and strengthen public confidence in the judiciary. Most significant among these changes were the creation of a Supreme Court and dramatically moving the process of becoming a judge away from a secretive appointment to a professional Judicial Appointments Commission.[2] The reforms eschew direct affirmative action, but place an explicit value on diversity among judges.[3] At the time, Professor Maute spoke admiringly of the reforms and suggested some of them might work well in the United States:

“To restore public confidence in the courts, people must believe that judges exercise legitimate authority, undistorted by personal or partisan preferences. . . . We could learn much from Britain’s modernized appointive system that aims to be open, transparent, accountable, and more diverse.”[4]

Inclusive pages

68-81

ISBN/ISSN

0199-4646

Document Version

Published Version

Comments

This document has been made available for download in its published form in accordance with the publisher's policy on self-archiving.

Permission documentation on file.

Copyright

Copyright © 2013, FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History

Publisher

Fordham University

Volume

40

Place of Publication

Bronx, NY

Peer Reviewed

yes

eCommons Citation

Lau, Terence J., "Drawing Lessons from the U.K. Constitutional Reform Act of 2005" (2013). Management and Marketing Faculty Publications. 72.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/mgt_fac_pub/72