Judicial independence remains a perennial issue in all democracies, as Geoffrey Bindman explains
We should be proud of our judiciary. They need courage and they have it. When the Daily Mail in November 2016 grotesquely labelled the Lord Chief Justice and two colleagues ‘enemies of the people’ they were not intimidated. But they did not descend into the arena to defend themselves. The then Lord Chancellor, Liz Truss, whose duty it was to do so, failed lamentably to meet the challenge.
It has long been customary for judges to maintain a dignified silence in the face of criticism, perhaps taking to heart Lord Bacon’s adage ‘an overspeaking judge is no well-tuned cymbal’. Recently, they have been encouraged to be more outspoken.
In the past some judges have capitulated to popular prejudice, even to mass hysteria. When they do so, injustice prevails and public safety is at risk. At times also they have spoken out forcefully in their own defence. One judge in his turbulent career did both.
In the year 1678 anti-Catholic feeling in England was deeply entrenched among Protestants. An
