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Judges and Their Roles Essay

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Judges and Their Roles

The Lord Chancellor plays a crucial role in the appointment of all judges.

The selection and appointment procedure for district judges, recorders and circuit judges is broadly the same. Suitably qualified candidates apply to the Judicial Appointments Department of the Lord Chancellor’s Department (LCD) in response to an advertisement. References are taken up, and wider ‘secret surroundings’ are carried out by officials within the LCD. A shortlist is prepared and those candidates are interviewed by a panel of three – a circuit judge, an official from the Judicial Appointment Department and a lay member. The interview panel recommends candidates to the Lord Chancellor, …show more content…

The system prides itself on having independence from pressures that might be put upon it by Government, the general public or other sources, therefore judges need to feel secure in their posts.

All judges of the Supreme Court – of the High Court rank and above – hold office ‘during good behaviour’; this means that they may only be dismissed by the monarch following the passing of a substantive critical motion through both Houses of Parliament.

It is possible for a judge to be removed on grounds of incapacity – through physical or mental ill-health – but this very much depends on the discretion of the Lord Chancellor.

As regards the removal of junior judges (up to the level of circuit judge), the Lord Chancellor has introduced procedures to reflect the Human Right Act 1998.

5b). To understand the different roles of judges, it is necessary to distinguish between the different

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