Judges should be independent. In a constitution that is committed to the rule of law, as the UK’s constitution has been for centuries, no one seriously disputes this proposition.

Yet the notion of judicial independence itself is often apt to be misunderstood, including by the judges and politicians who bear the primary responsibility for promoting and protecting it.  This lecture will provide a restatement of the idea of judicial independence and in the process call into question some common misunderstandings about the relationships between judges, law and politics.”