Whatsapp

" "NO JUDGMENT - NO JUSTICE"   "NO JUDGMENT - NO JUSTICE" By Lord Neuberger, President of the Supreme Court of U.K.   (1) Introduction1   1. It is an honour to have been asked to deliver this, the first, annual Bailii lecture. It is also a source of pleasure that, in doing so, I am able to so show my support for the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (to set out its full, if rarely used, name) and the work it does providing access to judgments. Access to Judgments carries with it access to law and access to justice, for lawyers, judges, academics and litigants, and all others interested in or concerned with any aspect of the law. Bailii, which also gives access to statutes, provides a unique and constitutionally vital service for UK citizens and others, which as the number of self-represented litigants, as litigants-in-person are now known, inevitably increases, will become even more important.   2. Judgments are the means through which the judges address the litigants and the public at large, and explain their reasons for reaching their conclusions. Judges are required to exercise judgement - and it is clear that without such judgement we would not have a justice system worthy of the name - and they give their individual judgement expression through their Judgments. Without judgement there would be no justice. And without Judgments there would be no justice, because decisions without reasons are certainly not justice: indeed, they are scarcely decisions at all. It is therefore an absolute necessity that Judgments are readily accessible. Such accessibility is part and parcel of what it means for us to ensure that justice is seen to be done, to borrow from Lord Hewart CJ's famous phrase2.   3. With that in mind, I…