U.K. judge leaves mixed reputation

Press, 4 June 1982, Page 6

U.K. judge leaves mixed reputation

NZPA staff correspondent ' London

Lord Denning, the 83-year-bld Master of the Rolls, who this week apologised to black jurors after threats of a libel action against him, has beencalled Britain’s most “outrageously famous” judge. But whether he -will be remembered as one of its greatest judges is something lawyers are likely to argue about over their brandy for years to come, judging from comments. after the announcement of his retirement next month.

-Lord Denning, who has been a judge for 38 years,, presiding over the. Court ,of Appeal for the last 20 years, made the; announcement earlier than lie had planned because of the row over, comments in fhis latest book which has been temporarily withdrawn by. the publishers. In it he cited a trial last year as an ; example of accused trying to “pack” the jury with people who might be sympathetic and claimed that the 12-accused used their “peremptory challenge” to get as many coloured jurors as possible by objecting to whites. ' ■■■ ■ “

The appearance of the book, "What Next in the Law,” was quickly followed by threats of a libel writ and injunction from solicitors acting for two black jurors. Butterworths, the legal publishers, withdrew it from sale after 10,000 copies had already gone to booksellers. It will be reissued later when offending passages have been deleted. Lord Denning, in a statement apologising for the comments, said his book was intended to be controversial and to “set people thinking, talking and writing about what I said.”

'• “But I deeply regret that ■ any of it should have given offence, especially among any of the racial or religious people who have long formed part of our community,” he said. ••••?••

Lord Denning said he had now been told tha the trial, judge had encouraged the accused to use their peremptory challenges t to get a representative juiy ano were justified in using them as they' did. And he said there was no reason to suggesfthat any of

the jurors had been influenced by any improper motives.

He had many friends in Asian, African, Caribbean, and other Commonwealth countries and did not wish to suggest that they were not as suitable for jury service as any other citizens. Lord Denning’s apology and impending retirement is being greeted with a mixture of sadness, relief, and some undisguised delight. The Lord Chancellor (Lord Hailsham) said: “He is a great man, a good man, with individual-ideas.” .

Lord Denning had been a great judge, he said, adding: ‘Tie has been one of the great formative influences in a changing atmosphere with regard to the law and society since the forties.”

But Hugo Young, writing in the “Sunday Times,” said that, for Lord • Hailsham, Lord >Denning’s departure was "a kind of victory.”

“Lord Chancellors have been hoping for years that Denning would go,” Young said. :

“Hailsham was the first of these 10 years ago, during his

first tenure. This was the time when Denning was becoming publicly notorious, as distinct from a legal revolutionary recognised as such only within the protective confines of the profession. “Lord' Denning talked too much and bent the law.”

Lord Denning was once rebuked by Lord Hailsham for saying he would not be bound by the House of Lords, which is higher than his own Court of Appeal. Young said Lord Denning had an obsession with doing justice rather.than obeying words. “When all the raucous headlines have been forgotten, and the' last regrettable calamity has passed insignificantly into the dustbin, Denning’s great' works will endure for ever,” Young said. “To anyone who believes the law should liberate, not enslave, he is a beacon.” Professor J. A. G. Griffith, professor of public law at the University of London, writing in the "Observer.” said Lord Denning; had presided over the Court of Appeal with total fairness. ?

He had always been an

upright judge, seeking .to achieve what he saw as a just conclusion. Many of his judgments had been based on his personal sense of what was proper conduct.

“When he condemned Granada Television and ordered them to reveal the name of their source of information about the way the British Steel Corporation had been managing its affairs, his criticism was that Granada had not conducted their form of investigative journalism in a way he considered to be gentlemanly,” Professor Griffith said. “Their conduct offended his view of the way journalists should behave.” But, in his book which has now been withdrawn, Lord Denning admits that he has had second thoughts about that case and now regretted his judgment.

Professor Griffith said Lord Denning had embarked on what looked like a campaign to curtail the powers of trade unions, defying the judgments of his judicial superiors in the House of Lords and had "come close to bringing the law into disrepute.” ■

Lord Denniflg had no doubt that judges should be given greater powers.

In the 8.8.C.'s 1980 Dimbleby Lecture on “the misuse of power,” he declared: "Someone must be trusted. Let it be the judges.”

A columnist in the “Observer” commented: "It would, especially given his retirement, be a little disrespectful to find it funny and to giggle even a little over the fact that Lord Denning's new book has been withdrawn because of various errors."

But he recalled that the 8.8. C. had to destroy advance copies of Lord Denning’s Dimbleby Lecture because he had cited as an example of the misuse of power by the media a TV programme on the I.R.A. "But the judge got something wrong: the programme was never shown.”

Perhaps it would be rather amiss to remember that the theme of Lord Denning’s lecture was that judges don’t get things wrong and shouldn’t be criticised, the columnist commented. |