Legal News

The President of the Supreme Court, Lord Neuberger, has warned the UK’s “white and wealthy” judges that they must not inject a subconscious bias into their courtroom dealings with members of society who are “less privileged”.

The Daily Mail reports that Lord Neuberger made his comments when addressing the Criminal Justice Alliance.

He was speaking about the modern aspects of the British legal system and said judges must have an understanding of “different cultural and social habits”.

The Supreme Court is the UK’s highest appeal court, which Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has said he would like to reinstate as the UK’s last resort for the appeals process over the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

In his address, Lord Neuberger cited several cases in which judges might be called upon to deal with defendants who were from a different culture or way of life, including a case involving an unemployed traveller.

He also said that women from the Muslim community should be allowed to wear full-face veils in courtrooms to show respect for different customs.

Lord Neuberger told the Criminal Justice Alliance:

“Judges may not appear to be neutral because they will almost always be seen – normally rightly – to come from a more privileged sector of society in both economic and educational terms, compared with the many of the parties, witnesses, jurors in court.

“A white, male, public school judge presiding in a trial of an unemployed traveller from Eastern Europe accused of assaulting or robbing a white female public school woman will – I hope – always be unbiased,” he said.

”However, he should always think to himself what his subconscious may be thinking or how it may be causing him to act.”

Lord Neuberger’s also said that judges and lawyers often failed to recognise how “artificial and intimidating” courts could be for witnesses and defendants.

“I sometimes wonder whether our trial procedures really are the best way of getting at the truth,” he said.

“Would you feel that you had given of your best if you had been forced to give evidence in unfamiliar surroundings, with lots of strangers watching, in an intimidating court, with lawyers in funny clothes asking questions – often aggressively and trying to catch you out – and with no ability to tell the story as you remember it?”

Lord Neuberger added that this did not mean a major overhaul of court proceedings was needed – but said that judges, lawyers and court staff must do as much as possible to help people feel at ease in court.

”Judges have to show – and have to be seen to show – respect to everybody equally; and that requires an understanding of different cultural and social habits.

“It is necessary to have some understanding as to how people from different cultural, social, religious or other backgrounds think and behave – and how they expect others to behave.

“Well known examples include how some religions consider it inappropriate to take the oath; how some people consider it rude to look other people in the eye; how some women find it inappropriate to appear in public with their face uncovered – and how some people deem it inappropriate to confront others or to be confronted; for instance, with an outright denial.

”More broadly, judges should be courteous and generally good-humoured;

and while they should be firm, they should never – however great the temptation – lose their temper.”

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