Judicial diplomacy

“The independent judiciary — the cornerstone of the rule of law — is an integral part of what the UK has to offer to the world,” the lady chief justice of England and Wales said last night.

Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill was addressing a court-full of senior judges and international visitors about the judiciary’s new five-year strategy for international engagement.

“The pre-eminent reputation of the UK in international diplomacy is of course well-known,” she continued.

“Perhaps less well-known is the extensive work of the judiciary of England and Wales to support these efforts through judicial diplomacy. Members of the judiciary have for many years been leading participants in international judicial organisations and the providers of training, mentoring, support and guidance to judges in many jurisdictions across the world.”

Last year, on a budget of £169,000, the judiciary had:

• engaged with 52 countries and a dozen international associations,

• welcomed more than 100 judges based in countries from Albania to Ukraine,

• delivered, through the Judicial College, over 400 hours of training, both online and overseas, on topics such as case management,

  vulnerable witnesses, judgment-writing and judicial ethics; and

• launched online peer-to-peer mentoring scheme for overseas judges to connect with judges in the UK.

Judges also ensured that the UK was a centre of excellence for international commerce and finance. The law of England and Wales, Carr said, was the law of choice for international trade. As a result, the legal services sector made an enormous contribution to the UK economy, with revenues for legal services of about £37 billion in 2023 and rising.

The lady chief justice continued:

The judiciary provides critical underpinning for this productivity. It provides the quality of judgments which underpin the world-leading reputation of English law, particularly commercial law.

It provides the flexibility and efficiency of procedure that make the Business and Property Courts the gold standard worldwide — and in troubled times gold standards are ever more important. It provides the predictability of outcomes that are the essential tools of the trade for our law firms, barristers, arbitrators and mediators…

The independence of the judiciary of England and Wales provides a cornerstone guarantee to international investors that the rules upon which they assess risk and make their investment decisions will be honoured.

Carr thanked Lord Justice Dingemans, who served until recently as the lead judge for international relations. He spoke about the work done by UK judges with experience of war crimes trials to train Ukrainian judges who might have to try Russian soldiers. The training has taken place. in Poland for safety reasons.

Dingemans also spoke about training judges in Albania, a country where judicial corruption was endemic until a decade ago.

The lady chief justice then introduced Lord Justice Snowden (pictured) as the new lead international relations judge. Although serving judges rarely give media interviews these days, Snowden agreed to take part in my podcast A Lawyer Talks. I asked him about the judiciary’s international engagement strategy, summarised in a paper published today.

My regular podcast is a bonus for paying subscribers to A Lawyer Writes. Everyone else can hear a short taster by clicking the ► symbol above.