Authors:Legal Action Group
Created:2024-06-28
Last updated:2024-07-01
‘Politicians don’t understand the rule of law,’ warns Lady Hale at Leicester Law Centre launch
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The Law Centre movement is ‘the rule of law in action’, Lady Hale (pictured left) told guests at the launch of the newly formed
Leicester Community Advice and Law Centre (LCALC). However, the former president of the UK Supreme Court added that she feared ‘politicians don’t understand the rule of law in the way they should’. She quoted another former president of the Supreme Court president, Lord Neuberger, saying: ‘If the rule of law is taken for granted it may be neglected, and if it is neglected it will eventually be lost.’ She called on all people in the room to do what they could to protect and preserve it. Access to justice is an important part of that, she said, and has recently been in danger.
CEO of LCALC, Liz Chahal, said: ‘Becoming a Law Centre is a hugely important milestone for [Leicester Community Advice and Law Service (CALS)]. It consolidates our reputation as a provider of high-quality, specialist legal advice, and being part of the national network of Law Centres will undoubtedly make our voice stronger when it comes to advocating on behalf of our clients.’
LCALC started life as Leicester Money Advice Centre in 1979, and rebranded as CALS in 2011 to reflect the broader scope of the work it was doing. It now has 42 staff, including two solicitors, one trainee solicitor and a team of specialist caseworkers.
Lady Hale on the rule of law
‘I think it means at least eight things,’ she said:
1Society is governed by rules, not by the diktat or whim of a ruler, and those rules should be accessible to all who are affected by them.
2Rules should respect the fundamental rights, dignity and equality of all human beings.
3Everyone is subject to the rules, the rulers as much as the ruled.
4Everyone must have access to courts and tribunals to assert their rights or defend themselves against accusers.
5Courts and tribunals must be accessible and independent.
6Everyone should be properly enabled with legal advice, help or representation, if they need them, to assert their rights or defend themselves against attack.
7The justice system should be properly resourced (places and people) to do its work properly.
8Finally (‘this is the biggie’), the justice system should be properly understood and all who work in it, including, of course, those who work in the Law Centre movement, should be properly respected.