The Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, took part in a recent event entitled ‘Engaging Society on the Rule of Law’, as part of the European Law Institute’s (ELI) annual conference. The overarching theme of the conference was ‘Europe and the Rule of Law: Cultural Engagement and Legal Resilience’.
In her opening remarks, the Lady Chief Justice highlighted the importance of public confidence in the rule of law, saying:
“Public trust is a foundation without which judicial legitimacy would rest on shaky ground. In the court of public opinion, the judiciary broadly enjoys high esteem, but this esteem requires constant transparency and nurturing to be maintained. Research shows that people with a better understanding of the courts trust them more. It is clear, therefore, that public understanding of our work is essential to continue and strengthen.”
She went on to say:
“In all honesty, people do not interact every day with concepts such as the rule of law, or stop to recognise how important judicial independence is to a fair and functioning society. But they do all want a fair and functioning society, they do all want the rule of law to ensure they can conduct their lives and exercise their rights safely. So, we need to build on their understanding of what it is and why it is important. Culture can help people to connect those everyday values to the institutions that uphold them. While people may not explicitly think about the rule of law, they nevertheless depend upon it every day.”
The Lady Chief Justice then joined legal professionals and journalists to discuss different approaches to improving public understanding of the rule of law, the importance of doing so and how culture can play a part.
The panel was chaired by Bruno Lasserre, President of the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents and former Vice-President to the French Council of State. Other members of the panel included: Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Journalist; Mark Ellis, Executive Director of the International Bar Association; Michael Meyer-Resende, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Democracy Reporting International; and Roland Wadge, President of the Council of Notariats of the European Union.
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