The first Judges' Council The first Judges' Council sprang out of the
Judicature Acts, which created a unified
High Court of Justice and
Court of Appeal of England and Wales, and also gave these courts permission to alter their own procedure. This was criticised on the grounds that the judges might do so ineffectively or slowly. The 1873 bill's eventual clauses contained, thanks to the influence of
Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, provisions for the creation of a Council of the Judges of the Supreme Court. This Council would oversee the new court system, reviewing its workings yearly, and consider the internal procedures of the court. The Council first met on 6 June 1874, providing recommendations for the circuit courts. They considered the circuit courts again in December 1883, where they recommended avoiding the processing of civil business in some towns where assizes were "useless" and the cessation of the tradition of reading the "proclamation against vice and immorality" before every case, ensuring that circuit courts could work with 11 judges instead of 14; despite some opposition, these suggestions were put into practice a year later. In 1892 the Council considered further reform of the court system to deal with growing backlogs in the
Chancery Division and the cost of appeals to the
House of Lords. They recommended the establishment of a Commercial Court, the creation of a
Court of Criminal Appeal to take over from the
Court for Crown Cases Reserved, a better division of work between the Chancery Division and
Queen's Bench Division, an additional judge for the Chancery Division and the
Attorney General for England and Wales to be given power to appeal against overly lenient sentencing, all of which were eventually put into practice. After this the council met irregularly; only twice between 1900 and 1907. There was a ten-year gap between meetings in 1940 and 1950 respectively, and little was done. The original Judges' Council was eventually indirectly dissolved in 1981, with the
Supreme Court Act 1981, which unlike previous Acts of Parliament contained no provisions allowing for the Council's continued existence.
Denis Dobson,
Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Office, suggested this was because other bodies now existed to do what the Council had been created to achieve.
The modern Judges' Council In 1986
Lord Donaldson and Professor I.R. Scott campaigned for a new, non-statutory, Judges' Council, arguing that the judiciary had no representative body. At the same time,
Sir Nicholas Browne-Wilkinson published a paper that the executive's financial and managerial control over the judiciary was having a negative effect on judicial independence. On 11 January 1988 the proposal for a new Judges' Council was discussed at the annual meeting of the
High Court of Justice, where it was formally established under
Lord Lane. The new Council was described in Parliament as: An independent body without a formal constitution. It has no statutory basis, exercises no executive functions and controls no public expenditure. It meets to discuss issues of concern to the senior judiciary and to represents to the views of the senior judiciary to the
Lord Chancellor and other individuals and bodies. It is wholly independent of Government and is accountable only to those whose views it represents. Its membership is a matter for the Council itself and those whose views it represents. The Council's initial remit was to promote co-operation between the judiciary and executive, maintain judicial independence and make court procedure more efficient. To this end, it was composed of the
Lord Chief Justice, the
Master of the Rolls, the
Vice-Chancellor and one High Court Judge. Its current remit also includes maintaining a Judicial Code of Conduct, recommending spending priorities for the court system, representing the judiciary in issues of pay and pensions and liaison with the
Judicial Appointments Commission. The Council adopted a written constitution in 2002, and has considerably widened its membership to include representatives from other parts of the judiciary. ==Composition==