Clause 14 — Lord Chancellor's Oath

Part of Orders of the Day — Constitutional Reform Bill [Lords] — [3rd Allotted Day] – in the House of Commons at 3:30 pm on 1 March 2005.

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Photo of Bill Cash Bill Cash Conservative, Stone 3:30, 1 March 2005

I understand, Sir Alan, although we have a fair amount of time to consider these matters, which we were denied yesterday. The definition of "international court" also includes functions in pursuance of

"a resolution of the Security Council or General Assembly of the United Nations", which anyone would regard as rather curious in the context of a judiciary whose independence, as a matter of duty and of oath, must be sustained by the Lord Chancellor.

Let us put that in the context of what judicial independence means. I have set the framework and I am now leading up to that crucial question. In 1950 Lord Denning, no less, stated in a seminal lecture:

"No member of the Government, no member of Parliament, and no official of any Government department has any right whatever to direct or influence or to interfere with the decisions of any of the judges."

That is what is meant by the definition in the Bill. The oath refers to the upholding of the independence of the judiciary.

3.45 pm

This is not a light matter. Apparently, in 1994, a serious problem is supposed to have arisen when the president of the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the then Lord Chancellor fell out over the question of judicial independence.