Appellate Recruitment Patterns in the Higher British Judiciary: 1850 - 1990 Page: 61
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inconsistent with Britain's European treaty obligations, and as of October 2000 British
Courts officially obtained the same power pursuant to the Human Rights Act.
Thus, in the late 1990's the appointment process became a matter of public
debate, and popular press reports of judge's backgrounds became more common. (Gibb
1999). Additionally, sensational court cases tinged with human rights concerns, such as
the deportation of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and the court-ordered
separation of conjoined twins (condemning one to death), captured the public's
imagination. Why, it was increasingly asked, should such power be entrusted in the least
democratic of governmental departments, populated with Oxbridge elites
unrepresentative of the population at large? The answer given by Sir Thomas Legg29 to
this question seemed increasingly unsatisfactory: "[O]nce people become judges, full-
time judges, they are as near to being unsackable as it is possible to be in our community.
It is not, therefore, a field in which it is very safe to indulge the luxury of experiment
beyond a certain point" (HA Comm. 7). In other words, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
The problem was that even among members of the judiciary, a consensus seemed
to be developing during the late 1990's that the system was broken. A government that
saw its first woman prime minister in 1979, did not have its first woman appellate judge
until 1988, and she "happened" to be the sister of the just-departed Lord Chancellor.30
29 The Permanent Secretary and Clerk for the Crown in Chancery, in testimony to the Home Affairs
Committee of Parliament in 1995 concerning judicial appointments procedures. House of Commons Home
Affairs Committee. 1996, Third Report: Judicial Appointments Procedures, Vol. II, Minutes of Evidence
and Appendices, May 17, 1995, p. 5 London: HMSO [hereinafter (HAC Report 1996)].
30 As noted earlier, the first woman appellate judge was Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss DBE, who is
currently President of the Family Division of the High Court. Her brother was Lord Chancellor Michael
Havers. Havers served as Margaret Thatcher' s Attorney General for nine years before being promoted to
Lord Chancellor in 1987. Havers served only a few months as Lord Chancellor, being forced to resign for
health reasons. Butler-Sloss and Havers are children of a former High Court Justice, Sir Cecil Havers. That
Butler-Sloss was the first woman appointed to the Court of Appeal, was, according to Sir Thomas Legg' s
testimony, "a complete coincidence" (HAC Report 1996, 5)61
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Thomas, Bruce K. Appellate Recruitment Patterns in the Higher British Judiciary: 1850 - 1990, dissertation, December 2004; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4650/m1/70/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .