The Courts: Friend or Foe?

The Putney Debates 2019 chaired by Joshua Rozenberg and Professor Denis Galligan

Since the EU Referendum, the courts have been called upon time and again to make politically charged judgments to break the constitutional impasse. They have been branded 'Enemies of the People' and fêted as defenders of centuries-old constitutional principles in equal measure.

Now, as the UK approaches the most significant change to its constitutional settlement for decades, the Oxford Foundation for Law, Justice and Society revisits for the third time the historic Putney Debates, to ask: What role do we want for our judges in the 21st Century?

New Putney Debates return to St Mary’s Church to offer the public a say on “Enemies of the People” controversy

The Oxford Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, in association with the University of Oxford Law Faculty, will return to St Mary’s Church, Putney, on 13th and 14th March, to stage the third in its series of modern-day constitutional conventions at the home of the original debates of 1647.

The Putney Debates 2019: The Courts: Friend or Foe? will address the constitutional implications of the EU Referendum result for our judiciary, examining the impact of the ‘Enemies of the People’ controversy and threats to the independence of the judiciary posed by populist movements in the UK and further afield.

The Putney Debates 2019 follow in the success of the 2017 and 2018 Putney Debates, which attracted audiences of over 500 people and were watched online by thousands more. The series of ‘New Putney Debates’ were revived by the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society in the wake of the EU referendum, to meet the demand for a public forum to better inform UK voters of the complex yet crucial constitutional questions raised.

This year’s Debates will begin the day after MPs have their ‘meaningful vote’ on Brexit on 12 March, and with the prospect of a second referendum still in play, the Debates will represent an invaluable opportunity for engaged citizens to put their questions to our expert panel of Court of Appeal judges, defenders of civil liberties, legal and political commentators, and constitutional experts.

Chairing the debates will be the UK’s best-known legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg and the founder of the New Putney Debates, Denis Galligan, Director of Programmes at the Foundation for Law, Justice and Society and Professor Emeritus of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford.

Speaking of the reasons behind this year’s focus on the independence of our courts, Professor Galligan said:

“Courts are often accused of interfering with the democratic process, the will of the people, or the good of the nation. They are easy targets for attack from dissatisfied government agencies, illiberal sentiments, or social movements with a vision of direct application of the will of the people.

The precarious position of courts in the constitutional order gives rise to many questions: How are courts accountable and to whom? What risks are associated with the distancing of courts from processes of accountability? How can courts be better protected to enable them to perform their constitutional functions?

The debates are very much directed at informing members of the public and helping them to understand better the constitution in all its dimensions.”

Court of Appeal Judge Robert J Sharpe will open the debates at 4pm on Wednesday 13 March at the historic St Mary’s Church, Putney, site of the original Putney Debates of 1647 that paved the way for many of the civil liberties that UK citizens still cherish.

Two days of public debates will ensue, featuring expert panellists including Andrea Coomber, Director of the all-party law reform and human rights organization JUSTICE; Frank Vibert, Senior Fellow at LSE and former adviser to the UN and World Bank; and Alison Pickup, Legal Director at the Public Law Project, the legal charity providing access to justice for those in need.

Panellists will discuss how and why the concept of judicial independence became such a central pillar of our democratic system, debate the increasing politicisation of the courts as international institutions such as the European Court of Justice (ECJ) become ever more influential, and assess the threats to the judiciary posed by populist movements around the world.

All members of the public who attend the debates will receive a free copy of Constitution in Crisis: The New Putney Debates, the book that accompanies the debates, featuring bite size essays by prominent public intellectuals including philosopher AC Grayling, political scientist Vernon Bogdanor, Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash, founder of the Constitution Unit Robert Hazell CBE, former Court of Appeal Judge Sir Stephen Sedley, and Director of Unlock Democracy Alexandra Runswick.

For those unable to attend in person, the debates will be filmed and videos made available at www.fljs.org/video and www.putneydebates2019.co.uk/New-Putney-Debates.

February 1, 2019