The judiciary of the superior courts 1820 to 1968: A sociological study

Abstract

This study is an attempt to construct a social profile of the judiciary of the superior courts during the period 1820-1968. The analyses cover a wide range of characteristics including parental occupation, schooling, class of degree, age of call to the Bar and age at appointment to the Bench. These indices are used to determine how far opportunities for recruitment to the Bench have been circumscribed by social origin, to assess the importance of academic qualifications and vocational skills in the achievement of professional success and to describe the pattern of the typical judicial career. The division of the total population of judges into four cohorts, based on the date of their initial appointment to the superior courts, allows throughout for historical comparison, demonstrating the major points of change and also underlining the continuities in the composition of the Bench during the period studied. The relationship between the law and politics provides a central point of discussion, focusing on an examination of the changing influence of political considerations in judicial appointments and a review of the main supports for judicial independence in contemporary England. This is set against a comparative survey of methods of judicial selection, drawing particularly on American and French experience. A separate chapter is devoted to an examination of the Lord Chancellorship, of the changing nature and duties of that office and of the social origins of its occupants. The study includes a description of the changing power and prestige of the Bench and the varied reactions that the judges have historically aroused in the performance of their functions. It ends with an attempt to show how the accumulated experiences of the judiciary, especially within the legal profession operate to set them apart from the society they judge.