Your Opportunity to Express Your Concern

Ladies and Gents - you have an opportunity to express your opinions on the criminal courts review that I talked about before Christmas...

https://www.commonlawconstitution.org/news-and-thoughts/important-new-attack-on-trial-by-jury-imminent 

Brian Leveson would like to hear from all who have an interest in this area! Would that be you by any chance? But you don't have long!...

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/leveson-seeks-ambitious-evidence-for-criminal-courts-review/5121998.article

The Ministry of Justice says: ‘Sir Brian Leveson welcomes views from all who have an interest in this area on any aspect of the Review, as set out in the terms of reference. We would encourage those responding to the call for evidence to be ambitious, and we welcome any ideas which challenge current thinking, are innovative, or which spotlight best practice and how it can be extended.’

I hardly need explain – as I’m hoping the seriousness is evident to all – that a further erosion to Judicium Parium - the Trial by Jury tradition in our Rule of Law would be cataclysmic for justice. The time has come to make our concerns heard. That is not, however, the same thing as ‘making our feelings heard!’. ;-)

Please, if you are going to express your opinions, do it intelligently and with respect and recognition of the fact that Brian Leveson is in a tough position. You will hardly win him round with talk of ‘You will be committing treason if you tamper with our Rule of Law etc. etc.!’ Anyone wishing to take the opportunity to express their concerns, please take the time to think carefully of the best arguments and express it profoundly and with tact and consideration.

I have started writing what will be an open letter which will (hopefully!) go up on the site within the next day or two. Given that we only have until Friday of this coming week, I am putting some thoughts and guidance here to help you start that process if you want to.

Many of you will know that I am not a fan of ‘template’ letters! I will not provide something like that so that people can then just sign it at the bottom. That, to me, is a lie, because the work and expression is not that of the signer. It is up to all of us to immerse ourselves in this subject enough to come to a sufficient understanding so that we can express our concerns in our own words. For some, that will be harder, I understand.

So, some concepts that you might think about expressing. You don’t need to express them all - and hopefully you will think of others that I haven’t!:

• True equity (being equal under the law) means all people taking part in the formation of law
• A healthy society is one whose citizens take part in the judgement of justice
• Trial by Jury is a tradition that recognises that true justice is not merely about allocating punishment
• True justice is about healing - exhibiting discretion, using conscience
• Trial by Jury in society demonstrates a society that understands justice is about using conscience and discretion
• Without Trial by Jury, the resulting ‘fake’/‘faux’ justice becomes nothing more than order-following
• Order-following was outlawed at Nuremberg
• Jury independence (within Trial by Jury) is a check on the legislation
• Jury independence is how the people reject a law that, to them, is morally unjust
• Trial by Jury is an expression of our collective responsibility - it is how the people exercise moral discretion and learn to govern themselves (see Alexis de Tocqueville in the list of quotations!)
• Through Trial by Jury, the citizenry learns to become trustworthy because, when a man’s life is in your hands, you learn how important it is to face your prejudices and your biases.
• Jurors become more civic-minded
• Trial by Jury is enshrined as Article 39 in the Great Charter which we celebrated
• Why do we celebrate MC1215 and then ignore its central tenets
• Quote Churchill from my list of quotations!
• It would be wrong to think that successive under-funding of a justice system should justify or result in yet more erosion of the central pillar of our Constitution
• Funding a justice system is the most important priority of any government - because ultimately under the Constitution, upholding justice is its most important function.
• King John promised to uphold these principles in perpetuity. The King and therefore his legislature is also rightly bound by those Common Law principles
• This is recognised even in the government’s own statutory versions of Magna Carta of 1225 and 1297 as chapter 29
• The Runnymede event of 1215 demonstrated that the King and his government was beneath the already-existing law of the land Legem Terrae (quote Blackstone it is agreed by all our historians that…)

Within the bullet points above where I have mentioned the quotations - you can find them here in the resources section of this website:

https://www.commonlawconstitution.org/resources/useful-quotations-in-support-of-the-constitution-and-trial-by-jury?c=learning

I’ll add more thoughts as I think of them to this list - and also perhaps more quotations to the quotations page so keep coming back to this page in the week! But I wanted to get something out there. Of course, not everyone will want to write to Lord Leveson, I understand; but those that do, this is an opportunity to get onboard and demonstrate your sovereignty. Be strong and resolute but polite and respectful :-) That is when the power comes through.

The convention for writing to members of the Judiciary can be found here:

https://www.judiciary.uk/guidance-and-resources/what-do-i-call-a-judge/

Anyone who does have a stab at this, and you would like to, by all means send me your letter - not for marking or approval(!), but for my interest. It doesn’t have to be long, perfect, stunning in its eloquence - but it should be honest and based on some good arguments.

Good luck - and have fun in the process!

Will