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JUSTICE – 50 years of defending the rule of law JUSTICE celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007. To mark our anniversary year, we ran a year-long programme of events and publications which addressed our concerns across a broad range of policy issues. JUSTICE invited
its members and supporters to participate in this programme – a celebration
of 50 years of success and positive influence and a call to action for
the future. Click here to download JUSTICE's 50th anniversary brochure Click to find
more about: JUSTICE began life with an international focus. In December 1956, on the initiative of Peter Benenson, who went on to found Amnesty International, lawyers from the three main UK political parties formed an ad hoc alliance to try to secure fair trials for political prisoners in two very different parts of the world - apartheid South Africa and post-uprising Hungary. JUSTICE's founding as a permanent organisation can be traced to events on two successive days in early 1957. On 16 January 1957, Norman Marsh, Secretary-General of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) met representatives of the Inns of Court Conservative and Unionist Society, the Society of Labour Lawyers and the Association of Liberal Lawyers - the three party organisations each agreeing to put forward three members to the Council of what was to become JUSTICE. The next day, at a public meeting held at Niblett Hall, Inner Temple, a packed audience of 300 lawyers heard expert accounts of show trials in South Africa and Hungary. From here, things moved quickly. During the spring, ties with the ICJ were cemented - JUSTICE becoming its British section. And on 4 June 1957 a constitution was agreed and JUSTICE formally came into being. So, from the very first, JUSTICE had two characteristics which are very recognisable today - a consciously all-party approach and a concern for international rule of law and human rights issues. But then, as now, that is far from the whole story. Perusal of its inaugural annual report confirms JUSTICE's far-sightedness: 1957 ended with it organising the first public discussion of the work of the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commission. Early domestic priorities also have a contemporary feel:
JUSTICE's first annual report (1958) JUSTICE's proud tradition of painstaking analysis and innovative thought has played a part in many progressive changes to our legal system over the years including:
Events January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
May 2007
June 2007
October 2007
November 2007
Publications Major reports and consultations
The JUSTICE 'futures' series Setting the agenda for the immediate future - a series of short forward-looking papers, available in electronic and printed formats.
Commemorative edition
of Lord Alexander's Iraq lecture As part of the 50th
year anniversary JUSTICE republished Lord Alexander’s seminal lecture
Iraq: the pax Americana and the law. ‘ ... a virtuoso
performance. Many others have now argued in similar vein, but Alexander
was the first of his legal stature to do so, and his lecture reads and
convinces today just as powerfully as when he gave it.’ 'International
law, like the common law, is founded upon precedent. A bad precedent should
not be allowed to stand.' As each of its reasons for claiming the invasion was legal - self-defence, humanitarian intervention, implied UN authorisation, unreasonable use of the Security Council veto, and a breach of UN Resolution 1441 - crumbled, the government was forced to 'scrape the bottom of the legal barrel' in its search for a justification, the lecture argues. Iraq: the pax Americana and the law is a devastating critique of controversial policy, a passionate defence of the rule of law and the value of judicial oversight, and a persuasive plea against wars of aggression from Suez to Iraq. To download a PDF of the lecture, click here. Free printed copies are available - please email your details to admin@justice.org.uk. JUSTICE is grateful
to 3-4 South
Square Chambers for its support
of this publication. Lord Alexander
of Weedon QC was chair of JUSTICE Council from 1990 until just a few
weeks before he died in November 2005. He was the prime mover behind the
transformation of the organisation in the mid-1990s. This paper is an
extended version of the JUSTICE Tom Sargant annual memorial lecture given
by Lord Alexander at the Law Society on 14 October 2003. Electronic media
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