Submissions in response to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s ‘Call for Evidence’ on the Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission

Introduction

  1. The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, founded in 1930, provides a well-respected and knowledgeable forum for the discussion and analysis of law and the legal system, both nationally and internationally, from a socialist perspective. We are independent of any political party and our membership comprises lawyers, academics, students and legal workers as well as trade union and labour movement affiliates. Our President is Michael Mansfield QC. Our Vice-Presidents are Geoffrey Bindman QC, Louise Christian, Liz Davies, Tess Gill, Tony Gifford QC, John Hendy QC, Helena Kennedy QC, Imran Khan QC, Catrin Lewis, Gareth Pearce, Estella Schmidt, Jeremy Smith, Frances Webber, Richard Harvey and David Watkinson. Our members and vice presidents include noteworthy experts on areas including the rule of law, access to justice, administrative law, human rights, extradition law, disability rights, amongst other areas. The contributions in this submission therefore draw upon significant professional expertise and offer a public-interested perspective into the proposed Commission.

  2. A commission to examine “the broader aspects of our constitution” and “come up with proposals to restore trust in our institutions and in how our democracy operates” is to be welcomed in principle. Our submissions in response to the questions posed by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (“the Committee”) with regards to the proposed Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission (“the Commission”) should be read in combination with our submission to the Independent Review of Judicial Review and are informed by the following observations:

  3. Successive governments have used neoliberal narratives of cost, streamlining and efficiency to effectively curtail and erode rights within the judicial system, particularly within the past decade. Meanwhile, the same governments have failed to reverse the trend of rising inequality beginning at the end of the 1970s. It is such curtailments and reductions, resulting in an increase in the burden on those who are both lacking in power and in most need of judicial remedy, combined with economic inequality, that undermine trust in our institutions and in how our democracy operates.

  4. The world is experiencing a climate emergency, exacerbated by global capitalism which encourages overuse of natural resources and does not account for value beyond profit. The scale of the climate emergency we are currently experiencing means that an examination of “the broader aspects of our constitution” must necessarily include a reexamination of the natural environment’s place within the Constitution.

  5. The United Kingdom must recognise its significant contribution to and responsibility for the global climate and biodiversity crises through its colonial exportation of private property ownership and capitalism. This is no exaggeration when considered in the light of the fact that by 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the world population at the time, and by 1920, covered 35,500,000 km2 (13,700,000 sq mi), 24% of the Earth's total land mass. Given Britain’s unique history of global imperialism, any approach to a future constitution must take into account rights and duties with regards to reparations to former colonies. British imperialist ‘exceptionalism’ grounded in imperialist readings of the Constitution is not a thing of the past, as evidenced by recent disregard for international law in relation to the Good Friday Agreement, the disgraceful treatment of the Chagos Islanders and the willingness to sweep aside the Sewel Convention in passing the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act.

  6. Today, the fluidity of international capital and its ability to transcend nation state regulation (e.g. Amazon and Apple’s scrutiny from the EU over its tax affairs) calls for increased organisation of workers and the working class. We stand with our comrades in the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the European Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights in this respect, as we seek to ensure that the process of decolonisation is completed, including within the UK’s offshore tax havens and other outstanding colonial territories. In doing so, we respect the potential of international law as it currently operates but have a strong critique of its underlying premises, such as the disproportionate power that manifests in the vetoes of the permanent members of the UN Security Council. We note in this respect the injustice of the Chagos Islands and the role of the UK and the US therein: we recognise the terrible injustice of cleansing them of their native peoples for the sake of a US airbase and support calls to properly compensate the victims.

  7. The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers is conscious of its history and the struggles of comrades in the past. It is in this sense, that we are acutely aware that the constitutional tectonic plates are shifting in the UK. The devolution ‘settlement’ of 1998 is under scrutiny with developments relating to Brexit. The British Government has chosen to disregard international law in its implementation of Brexit and undermine the constitutional basis of the Belfast Agreement, which is an international obligation that it is willing to breach in a “‘specific and limited” way.

  8. Given the above observations, it is not only desirable, but urgently necessary that a different system be adopted. The hope of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers is that such a system would be a socialist republic, supported in law by a constitutional convention and citizens assemblies, with further devolution and an amended electoral system, although we recognise that it is the role of the Commission to present such solutions, and not our role in presenting these submissions.

Continue reading for our more detailed proposals for the Commission’s consideration.

LGFS Consultation Response

The Ministry of Justice is consulting on proposed changes to the Litigators Graduated Fee Scheme, which solicitors conducting legally aided criminal work.  The proposals amount to massive and unsustainable cuts and are firmly opposed by the Haldane Society.

The Haldane Society has provided a detailed response to the consultation. 

Download our response here, or read it below.

AGFS Consultation Response

The Ministry of Justice is consulting on proposed changes to the Advocates Graduated Fee Scheme, which pays barristers and solicitor-advocates to conduct legal aid work in the Crown Court.

The Haldane Society has provided a detailed response to the consultation.  We oppose the proposed scheme which we believe, despite the Ministry of Justice's claim, represents a significant cut to fees.

Download our response here, or read it below.

Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women

The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women recently sought submissions from bodies across the globe dealing with the need for a separate legally binding treaty on violence against women with its separate monitoring body. 

The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and the Haldane Feminist Lawyers made detailed submissions which should assist the Special Rapporteur in determining how to proceed.

Download the submission.

Labour Legal Aid Review

The Labour Party is currently undertaking the Bach Review into legal aid.  The submission below was prepared by the Haldane Society in response to a request for submissions.

The submission advocates for the restoration of the areas of the funding affected by years of cuts, notes the terrible impact on individuals of the removal of legal aid, and highlights the position of those at the junior end of the profession who are no longer able to make ends meet because of the cuts.

Click here to download the submission.



Haldane Response to Delivering Civil Justice in an Age of Austerity

The Haldane Society has responded to Justice's consultation on "Delivering Civil Justice in an Age of Austerity".

Whilst we understand that the purpose of the working party’s consultation is to find cheaper ways of delivering justice, we do not agree with the current prevailing economic philosophy that severe cuts in public services need to be made. We continue to argue that legal aid should be expanded, not cut. When the legal aid scheme was first introduced, in 1949, around 80% of the population was financially eligible for legal aid in comparison with less than a third today. We believe that financial eligibility should return to the levels that it was in 1949. The costs of this could be recouped through taxation.

Download the response (pdf).

Read More

NEW Petition to Save Legal Aid

The Justice Alliance has launched a new petition calling on David Cameron to halt the Transforming Legal Aid proposals accompanied by the following message:

As opposition to the legal aid cuts grows from diverse sections of society, now is the time to put down a marker. We need to send a strong and swift message to the Government, we need to show the widespread support for legal aid and we need to defend access to justice.

Please sign this petition http://chn.ge/1dWvURV and join with Joanna Lumley, the first signatory, who campaigned to secure rights for the Gurkhas, themselves reliant on legal aid. If Grayling has his way innocent people will be wrongly jailed, the state will enjoy immunity for unlawful acts, victims of trafficking and domestic violence will be left without support. Don't let that happen. Join the fight for legal aid.

Please share this petition widely and encourage others to sign it. It has reached nearly 5,000 signatories since it opened on Friday morning.

Judicial Review Consultation Response

The Haldane Society has responded to the Ministry of Justice's consultation on "reform" of judicial review.  The reform proposals would see access to judicial review massively restricted, thereby impacting on the ability of individuals to hold the government to account through the courts.  The proposals, if brought into law, would:

  • Reduce the time limit for judicial review, making it almost impossible for individuals, but not large corporations, to comply with the requirements in time;
  • Limit access to judicial review by restricting oral renewal hearings, allowing the oral rehearing of an application which was rejected on the papers.
  • Increase fees and so remove the ability of almost every ordinary person to apply for judicial review.

Download the Consultation Response