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Access to justice: Hope Springs Eternal - The Mary Ward Legal Advice Centre Annual Lecture

Speech by Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, Master of the Rolls

15/07/2009

 

Lord Clarke reflected on views of justice through the ages, starting with Roman legal authority Ulpian, in 533 BC, via the Book of Judges, the Lord Chief Justice of 1702, and Associate Supreme Court Justice Brennan from the 1950's.

He then moved on to access to justice, and the pressures that can limit this:

“No justice system can expect unlimited largesse from the State. Equally, it is true to say that the provision of a justice system is a public service provided by the State. It is not however an optional public service. It is not akin to the NHS for instance. We can all conceive of the possibility, whether we agree with it or not, that the NHS could be entirely privatised. There is no reason why a state must provide a universal health care system. Some states do not. Others do.”

 

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