Judicial Diversity Case Study

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The lack of diversity is apparent in the Supreme Court of UK which is composed of 11 white men and one white woman. The composition of the panel can directly impact the cases. The case generally reaches the Supreme Court indicates that it is a matter where the law is not clear and there will be, in effect, two possible answers to the question. As Lady Hale recognises: “you will not get the best possible results if everybody comes from exactly the same point of view.” This conclusion is strongly supported by the research on the effects of the judicial diversity carried out largely in US which concluded: Judges panels from the diverse backgrounds are more likely to debate a wider range of considerations in reaching their judgements than homogenous groups of judges. Thus quality of the decisions making could actively improve. For example in Radmacher v Granatino Justices were asked to determine how much weight should be granted to a pre-nuptial agreement in divorce proceedings. Pre-nuptialsare generally condemned in feminists thinking because they are discriminatory against women. The court heard the case as a panel of nine. It reached its decision to accord weight to the pre-nuptial agreement by a majority of eight to one. In the majority were the eight male Justices; in the minority was …show more content…

After the passage of the Act there is a lack of agreement regarding the role of judges and their relationship with other organs of government. Both factors are very crucial to determine how much and what kind of judicial independence is required. As common in other constitutional and legislative provisions, the CRA provides no definition of the judicial independence. Section 1 , which seeks to protect judges from the political interference or any other kind of interference in decision making, implies that this protection attaches primarily to the judge hearing a