The Lifting Of The Ban On Cameras In Court And Its Impact On Transparency In The Justice System

History of Cameras in Court

Discuss whether the lifting of the ban on cameras in court makes the justice system more transparent to the public? 

There are several countries where the proceedings of the courts are televised. The question of whether the proceedings of the court are to be filmed is the primary issue of this assignment. There has been a lot of debate and discussion regarding the fact that whether the proceedings of the Court in the United Kingdom particularly in Wales and England are subject to be filmed. In accordance to several people, as the judiciary system and its theories make the application to all people and the society, the proceedings of the court needs to film for the purpose of reaching the decision of the court to the people and society. The filming of the proceedings of the court would serve as promotion of the understanding and enhanced openness. It is for this reason that the proceedings of the Supreme Court were decided to televise as an exception (Barry 2006). On the other hand, few people of the public make the viewing of the proceedings as a result that such proceedings have been made viewable to them who wants to see such proceedings.

In the territory of Wales and England, the law suggests that it not permitted to take the photographs or to make the sketches in the courtroom. It is also the fact that the artists of the court have to make the memorization of the scenes of the court to make the drawings of them later. The bringing of the cameras to the court for the filming of the case that is taking place is considered as a prima facie against the law. However, the position of the court in the legal sense on filming the proceedings of the court has changed since the inception of the Crime and Courts Act of 2013 (Calderwood 2016).  

In the month of October in 2013, Section 32 of the Crime and the Courts Act of 2013 came into force. It was at this time when the televisions were first allowed in the Court of  Appeal in Wales and England. The same was allowed by Lord Chancellor’s order with the agreement of Lord Chief Justice. The said action was performed as an experiment. For that reason, the filming extent was limited to reduce the impact. The lawyers and the judges were filmed, and the person who was making the appeal was neglected from the filming.

The Crime and Courts Act of 2013

The ban that existed in the courts of Wales and England for the filming of the proceedings is overturned for the purpose of improving his transparency and the understanding of the public of the courts (Clifford 2013). The issue of lifting the said ban was due for the purpose of consultation for a long time with those judges who are senior. In the recent years, the process of consultation had been subject to movement, and there has been much support that was provided regarding the change.

The decision of removal or lifting of the ban was announced by the Clarke. While making the announcement, he remarked that the judiciary system and the government are under determination to make the improvement of the transparency and the understanding of the public of the theories of the courts by making the allowance of the broadcasting of the procedures of the court (Evans & Pryce 2014). The judiciary system has the belief that there is the role of television in increasing the confidence of the public in the system of judiciary.

Clarke mentioned the broadcasting of the proceedings of the court initially started from the Court of Appeal and that the filming of the proceedings of the court would be expanded to the Crown Court in the later years. It was also mentioned by Clarke that the changes that are to be brought as discussed by him are to be done in the close consultation along with the system of judiciary. The decision was taken that the filming of only the judges will be done and not the witnesses, victims, and the offenders (Feldman 1993). This is because there is no requirement for the filming of the offenders. The act of televising the proceedings of the court has been banned by the acts of parliament and hence the broadcasting of the proceedings of the court requires the new legislation that would make it legal to allow the cameras in the court.

The shift to the factor of televising the proceedings of the court has subject to hamper by the fact of the trial of OJ Simpson in the United States that degenerated to the fact of entertainment of the prime time.

The companies related to television are indulged with the act of pressing for making the greater access to make the highlight of the cases of the courts. The earlier Labor government made a consultation regarding the shift to the broadcasting of the procedures of courts, but that got discarded eventually (Jones Schlenther & White 2012).

The Lift of the Ban on Cameras in Court

The present government of the United Kingdom has made the revival of the plans that believed that the judicial pronouncement must become much more reckoning to the public. The officials had the belief that the transparency would enhance the understanding of the public of the processes of the court, and that idea gained the momentum in the recent years (Lewis 2007).  

Clarke remarked that the recent information about the performance of the courts would be subject to publication in the future to allow all the people to have a look at the procedures that is undertaken by the local courts in their daily working.

The supporters of the motion of the broadcasting the proceedings of the Court are of the view that the broadcasting of the courts would help in making the court-by-court statistics about the time that is taken for the same to process a case beginning from the offence and ending at conviction. This would allow the people to make the comparison of the performance of the local courts. The broadcasting of the proceedings of the courts would also help in making the detailed analysis on the number of trials that were ineffective and the reason for their ineffectiveness (Moran 2014). The filming of the proceedings of the court would also help in making the detailed analysis of the number of people who have been subject to conviction or release from the prisons in every area and the number of times the offenders re-offended thereon.

At the time when the Supreme Court in Westminster was opened, it contained cameras in it. The Supreme Court in Westminster stands the sole court where the footage of the court proceedings is available routinely to the broadcasters on their request. Such footage is also subject to live telecast upon request (Moran 2014).

Therefore, from the discussion it can be said that the use of the cameras in the court would help in bringing of transparency of the judicial system and helping the common public in making the understanding the proceedings of the court.

The term judicial diversity refers to that extent to which the women, the ethnic minority groups, and the black are represented in the judicial system. At the time of the determination of the judicial diversity, other factors are to be taken into consideration. Those factors are education, legal background, age, religion, and disability.  The factors of religion and sexuality are rarely considered in the determination of the judicial diversity. In the process of judicial diversity, it is immensely important to make the distinction among the judges who are serving the several levels of the judiciary. The latest researches have made the establishment of the existence of the two effects that is the “Caring Role Effect” and the “Prestige effect” (Cahill-O’Callaghan 2015).

The “Prestige effect” in the process of judicial diversity is applicable in the cases where the women and the minorities have achieved the appointment to judiciary and such factor occurs at the lower levels of the judicial system.

In the territory of Wales and England, the statistics that are official denotes that there are only 19% of the judges, who are women. It is also revealed from that statistics that there only 4% judges who belong to the ethnic groups of the minority. The said statistics served as a clear evidence of the under-representation of the women and the ethnic groups of the minority in the legal profession. However, such statistics fails to represent the accurate structure of the level of judicial diversity merely by depending upon the level of judiciary.

Support for the Change

The factor of setting the targets to make the appointment of a number of judges from the women population and the members of the minority group is liable to be considered as the factor of judicial diversity. The choosing of the judges from the women population and minority groups is important for rendering the system of the judiciary of Wales and England more diverse in the next years to come. 

Alarming factors only one among the twenty judges is non-white or black and less than one among four judges are women or female. The said disparity is doing the act of undermining the confidence of the public in the judicial system that includes the courts and the Constitution Committee of the House of Lords. Hence, it can be said that there needs to be a “tie-breaker” preference that is to be brought to make the redress of the imbalance by making the appointment of two equal candidates (Cahill-O’Callaghan 2015). The government must also resort to sticking to the targets and the quotas in making the appointment of the people from the ethnic groups and the minority groups.

The Select Committee of the judges should also make the call of the judges in order to have the working practices that are more flexible. There has to be career breaks and part-time appointment of the judges to the bench. The Chairperson of the Select Committee named Baroness Jay possess the belief that the change is required to make the combat of the perception that “the judge inhabiting a courtroom in England and Wales is stereotypically a white male from a narrow social background” (Blackham 2013).

There has been a progress of the amount of involvement of women and other members of the ethnic group in the judicial process of Wales and England. In the year of 1998, the amount of judges who were women amounted to 10.3%. 1.6% judges belonged to the Asian, black and the ethnic minority background. In the year of 2011, the figure amounted to 22.3%. There were 5.1% of the judges, who were from the ethnic groups of minority (Lynch 2015).  

From the fact that is stated above it can be said that the slow changing rate of the appointment of woman judges and the minority people would cause not only the problem to the career seekers but also to the society as well. The factor of the slow rate of appointment is a big problem to the society (Reddick 2010). The Select Committee through its chairperson made the denotation that an enhanced judicial diversity would not result in the undermining of the judges but would enhance the trust of the public and their confidence on the system of judiciary.

Concerns and Criticisms

The breakdown of the gender and ethnic composition at every judicial level shows that there is the requirement of appointing more women and people from the ethnic groups. It is seen that out of the 37 Lord Justices of the appeal, there are only four who are women and thirty-three of them are men. In the Supreme Court, there is only one women justice and the eleven men justices.

There is also the recommendation that the provisions of the “tie-break” that is mentioned in Section 159 of the Equality Act of 2010 has to be used in the procedure of appointment. In such appointment, process there has to be two equal candidates who are qualified and after that among them the one who is from the minority background has to be chosen. However, this procedure of appointment is not followed in the process of judiciary. In accordance to the Select Committee, the merit must be the sole criterion for making the selection of the judges (Acquaviva & Castiglione 2009). However, the Committee also makes the affirmation that the along with the merit, there is also the focus that is given on the intellectual rigor.

The Select committee also made the recommendation of a formal system of appraisal in the judiciary. The Committee mentioned that the panels of appointments must make the inclusion of the lay persons who is capable of bringing a perspective that is different to the assessment of the abilities of the candidates. This has to be done for preventing any “self-replicating” caste in the legal system.

There are neither quotas nor targets that are required to be present in accordance to the Committee. However, the Committee is of the belief that the quotas and the targets are to be kept under the review. The Committee also made the point that in case there has not been the significant rise in the appointment of the women and the people from the minority background then they would follow the policy of targets that is non-mandatory. There is also the recommendation that the retirement age of the judges of the Court of Appeal must be raised to 75 years (Acquaviva & Castiglione 2009). The reason for this recommendation is making the prevention of the talent. Any judge of the experience of seventy years is considered to be an asset to the judicial system. Hence, if the retirement age is increased from seventy to seventy-five years then there would be the maintenance of talent for a longer period of time. In case the judges serving any additional period of five years would ensure that the judiciary system is enhanced. Hence, it can be said that the judges are appointed on merit but there are steps that are to be taken for the promotion of diversity (Hoster 2012).

In this assignment, the primary learning outcome is the amount of diversity that exists in the judicial system of Wales and England. In this assignment the researcher has made the effort to find out the ways and the techniques of improving the appointment system of the judiciary in order to increase the amount of women and the people from the minority and the judicial structure. For making the assignment, the researcher has taken the help of the study materials and the newspaper “Guardian”. Several internet sources are used in making this paper.

Potential Benefits of the Broadcasting of Court Proceedings

In the assignment, there are several facts stated that demarcates the appointment of less number of women and people from the backward classes of the society as judges in the judicial system. several facts are stated that determines in the assignment the requirement of the process of the Selection Committee to follow in the appointment process. in this assignment there is also the detailed discussion of the requirement of the filming of the filming of the proceedings of the court in the territory of Wales and England.    

Reference List  

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