The Organisation of the Judiciary
On April 3, 2006, a new era dawned for the judiciary: the Constitutional Reform Act came into force, confirming and strengthening the independence of the Judiciary.
So far, so good, but how is this supposed to work? A new publication, The Organisation of the Judiciary, explains the changes in detail, as well as illustrating them. Lord Justice Thomas outlined the major changes in a speech late last year; a digest can be found below.
The Constitutional Reform Act makes the Lord Chief Justice President of all the Courts of England and Wales and Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales; in almost every section and every paragraph, the power transferred from the Lord Chancellor or declared by the Act is vested in the Lord Chief Justice. However, it was never intended that the Lord Chief Justice should exercise all these powers and functions personally; this would, as some feared, have transformed him into a judge who never had time to sit. The purpose was simply to enable the powers to be delegated in a manner that would fit in with detailed arrangements which it was obvious would have to be created, allowing the Lord Chief Justice to perform his primary responsibility of sitting in important cases in both divisions of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and giving leading judgments.
At the heart of the new internal arrangements are the Judicial Executive Board, the Judges' Council and the Directorate of Judicial Offices of England and Wales; each has its origins in the way in which the judiciary was governed; only one of them has a long history.
The Judicial Executive Board’s core function is to enable the Lord Chief Justice to make policy and general executive decisions through it.
The Judges' Council is broadly representative of the judiciary as a whole. Over the very short period since 2002, the Council has played an important role in providing a forum for the judiciary to discuss and resolve issues of policy, including a significant role in relation to the making of the Concordat.
The Directorate of Judicial Offices of England and Wales has its origins in the very small private offices of the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls and President of the Family Division. It includes a communications office, the responsibility of which extends to the media and communication with the judiciary in its widest sense.
Although these three bodies are, as I have said, at the heart of the new internal arrangements, it has also been necessary to provide for what happens outside London on the Circuits. Again what is being done to accommodate the change builds on what is already in place.
The most important function which is to be dealt with on the Circuits by the Presiding Judges is the Lord Chief Justice's responsibility for the conduct of the business of the courts; in this and their other functions the Presiding Judges are to be supported by newly created Circuit Judicial Secretariats on each Circuit.
There are several other important functions which have to be carried out on a day to day basis. There is, for example, the responsibility for training which is to continue to be vested in the Judicial Studies Board. In addition, there are other significant functions including those in relation to appointments through the Judicial Appointments Commission, appointments to other posts such as Presiding Judges and Resident Judges, complaints and discipline and overseas relations. These are to be handled through the Judicial Office or by individual judges supported by the Judicial Office.