Question 4

Judicial diversity is not a need of the hour but a basic necessity which ought to be
achieved in order to establish a judiciary in which the people can pose their trust and
confidence. However, it is a harsh reality of the judicial process in UK that judiciary has
not been there real representor of the people of UK and was mostly dominated by only
one male faction of the society. In a country like UK where people come from different
castes and creeds, it ought to be ensured that judicial diversity is upheld in every
situation.

In the United Kingdom, judiciary has been not quite diverse. Judges are quite political as
they are made to hear cases which involve political stakeholders. This forms the basic
need and desire to establish a judiciary that is diverse and is true exhibitor of the well
wishes of the society. In Ministry of Justice Report it was stated that “achieving judicial
diversity is a difficult task”. Unfortunately, judiciary in UK is mostly dominated by the
male judges who come from middle class background with degrees of Oxford or
Cambridge. It is essential that this is understood that when judges come from the same
background and dominate it, then justice would not be served in the best way.

There are 3 main reasons to adopt a diverse judiciary. Firstly, there must be an equal
opportunity for everyone to come and take part in judiciary. Different lawyers with
different background must have this confidence that they would be given an equal
opportunity to take part in judicial process. Secondly, diverse judiciary enhances the
legitimacy of the judiciary. It is obvious that when a bench would belong to different
backgrounds like representative of Black people along with white then people would
have more confidence in their judiciary that here could be no issue of conflict of interest.
Lastly, it leads to enhanced law making as British law is mostly judge made law as per
Dicey, so when the bench hearing a particular case is diverse then everyone will be
able to have an input in the judicial law making. Therefore, diverse judiciary is the basic
necessity of the people of Britain.

If the statistics of judicial diversity in 2020 are considered, it can they are very disturbing.
As of 1st April 2020, women dominated 32% of all court judges, BAME individuals were
about 8% of all court judges and non-barristers were approx. 32% of all court judges.
These statistics are very disturbing as they do not even form half of the diverse judiciary
in UK. UK is far away right now from achieving a judicial structure that can claim that
they are there for the people belonging to all sorts of background. However, this is not
the situation only in UK but such a thing has also taken place in USA judiciary as well
where, 80 percent of the judges are white male. Hence, judicial diversity is a global
issue and it ought to be resolved.
Women form the most important part of the judicial process. No institution can succeed
without having a woman, working from shoulder to shoulder. Lord Neuberger also
emphasized upon the issue by stating that “the idea that women are fewer good judges
them men is fanciful”. UK has produced one of the greatest women judges such as
Lady Hale who rendered a landmark judgement in Miller case and then Lady Hale was
followed by Lady Rose and Lady Black. However, unfortunately there are many other
women who can be a good judge but they are being ignored due to the orthodox
approach of the committees responsible for judicial appointments.

UK has made several attempts to ensure a smooth judicial diversity across the country.
Judicial Appointment Commisson was introduced to change the procedure of judicial
appointment but along with that its purpose of establishment was to make sure that
there is appointment on merit and the diversity is increased. JAC made sure that there
is advertising and outreach to enable everyone to apply for the judicial process.
However, stats show JAC has to do a lot of work to make sure its goals.

UK established judicial diversity committee in 2013 which was chaired by Lady Hallet.
They conducted symposiums in various universities where they motivated graduates to
take part in the judicial process. This would sow a seed of wanting to become a judge
whenever they graduate. Furthermore, an Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity was
formed under the chairmanship of Baroness Neuberger. It gave the concept of a judicial
career, encouragement of youth and young lawyers and creation of a judicial diversity
task force. Hence, these attempts were important one but unfortunately, they have not
been so successful.

Lammy review was issued in 2017 by David Lammy. This focused on increasing judicial
diversity and recommended JAC to make sure that the judicial composition in UK is
diverse and is not influenced by anyone. It also recommended the procedure of
reducing the number of BAME offenders in the criminal justice system. Hence, David
Lammy by his report highlighted the fact that failure to establish a diverse judiciary was
due to the racial bias mindset of the people responsible of making judicial appointment.

Parliament played an important part in establishing the judicial diversity. They enacted
equal merit provision by which positive discrimination was promoted. If a white man and
black women are on an equal footing before the judicial appointments commission then,
JAC can appoint the black women to increase judicial diversity. Furthermore, Sadiq
khan recommended quota system to make sure that the judicial process is smoothly
carried out by judges coming from various back grounds.

There are several reasons as to why to judicial diversity is still a vital issue in UK. First
is experience deficit, that orthodox male lawyers are bale to explore various opportunity
but unfortunately women are not able to work as better as they could in a male
dominated profession. Secondly, self-exclusion is a reason that many black women and
other people are not able to develop the confidence to make into the profession. Thirdly,
there is selection bias by JAC as they only consider white males and consider them as
the benchmark of merit. Hence, these are the main reasons of a failure to achieve
diverse judiciary.