Hopes for a Rainbow Court

The higher echelons of the legal profession has usually been characterised by a very specific demographic. The image that is brought to mind when the average person thinks of a judge is that of an elderly white man, more than likely to have an Oxbridge education. However, Ken Clarke has a vision to abolish this antiquated image by introducing a scheme of part time judges and scaling back the number of judges on selection panels.

Only 12% of judges in England and Wales are female, and despite 13.7% of the country coming from an ethnic background, only 3.1% of judges are African-Caribbean, African or Asian. However, a movement has emerged recently to amend this and allow the judicial system to truly reflect the multicultural nature of Britain. s159 of the Equality Act 2010 is central to this new movement as the section allows selection panels to positively favour candidates from under represented backgrounds if two candidates are of equal merit. Thus far, the provision has not been implemented in the selection of judges, but this is soon to change.

The Judicial Appointments Committee has made clear that appointments have relied solely on merit and that the above legislation is incompatible with the present system and new legislation must be drawn up to ensure the smooth running of the future appointments process. While conservative opinion is sceptical around this area of positive action, with dissenting opinion making the cynical judgement that racial issues come before proficiency, Clarke has assured that "the calibre of our judges should never be compromised – their role is too important. Candidates should always be assessed on merit. But swathes of talent are going untapped.”

 The argument that he puts forth, and rightly so, is that if we are to broaden our search to new areas that have previously been overlooked, we are likely to find the most capable legal minds to bring the profession deep into the 21^st century. Accusations of racism are rife amongst the judiciary and a more multicultural pool of judges is likely to bring a positive perception to the profession.

Let us hope that this attempt at reform will not fall by the wayside. We should not sway from our position of being a meritocracy, but the undeniable tilt in favour towards white upper-middle class men should be done away with. After all, how can Britain claim to be champions of tolerance and liberalism with a court system dominated by a narrow group of society?