Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

I agree with what has been said. I look forward to hearing what can be put forward against it. The jurisprudence of judicial review has developed over the past 30 or 40 years and has provided us with far and away the most effective curb upon the abuse of Executive power that exists—in my view, far better than any Bill of Rights yet invented. It is one of the ironies of life that Lord Diplock should publicly be associated with the report that led to the curtailing of jury trial whereas he, more than anybody else, was responsible for the genesis of this new jurisprudence of judicial review. Towards the end of his life he said that he regarded it as the greatest achievement of the judiciary in his time. It would be unwise for the Government to persist with Clause 7. The history of ouster clauses, which try to exclude the jurisprudence of the courts, is not particularly happy. Judges will find a way around them in any case which they consider—to use a legal cliché—to be a proper case. The clause as drafted demonstrates that the Government recognise the need for some provision—a saver clause, perhaps—for other exceptional cases, and that is exactly what judges can be relied upon to give weight to if they consider that the facts of a case warrant it. We have been reminded of the way in which judges have been perfectly sensible about recognising that there are areas of decision which are not sensibly amenable to judicial review, and we should continue to trust them in that. The harm in this clause is that it suggests on the part of the Government a degree of distrust of the judiciary. The whole history of judicial review should go against that. I hope that the Government will give this issue close thought and not be afraid to come back and say that the arguments have persuaded them.