"Darling’s chief crime was what Bacon called a lack of gravity; for more modern readers he seems to have been something of a David Brent"
Author: Graeme Williams QC
Publisher: Wildy, Simmonds & Hill
ISBN: 9780854901418
Price: £9.99
In R v Sussex Justices; ex parte McCarthy [1924] 1 KB 256, 259, Lord Hewart LCJ famously said: “It is not merely of some importance but is of fundamental importance, that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.”
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The aphorism found its way into the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations . Ironically, while it might be one of the greatest legal quotes of the 20th century, it was made by one of the very worst judges. In 1985, Lord Devlin wrote ( Easing the Passing: the Trial of Dr John Bodkin Adams ): “Hewart…has been called the worst Chief Justice since Scroggs and Jeffries in the 17th century. I do not think that this is quite fair. When one considers the enormous improvement in judicial standards between the 17th and 20th