Professor Conor Gearty was recently quoted in a Guardian article on the dramatic fall in successful high court challenges to government policy in civil judicial reviews. He noted:
"the number of wins has always been very small, and now we see a drastic reduction in even that small percentage ... It is hard to avoid the thought that the background noise of hostility to the judges and the courts, being generated relentlessly not only by ministers but even by the attorney general herself, has had an effect. The apparent desire of the supreme court to restrict the range of arguments before the courts and to cut back on challenging socio-economic claims may also have had some effect. These are worrying times for those who see accountability to the law as an essential feature of democracy.”
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