Book review: Our Magistracy A Democratic Jewel Beyond Price
| Author | Mike Guilfoyle |
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550520934332c |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
References
Burke L, Collett S and McNeill F (2019) Reimagining Rehabilitation – Beyond the Individual.
London: Routledge.
Home Office (1990) Crime, Justice and Protecting the Public – the Governments Proposals for
Legislation. London: HMSO.
Our Magistracy A Democratic Jewel Beyond Price
John Hosking
Waterside Press; 2020, pp.254; £19.95; pbk
ISBN 978-1-909976-74-0
Reviewed by: Mike Guilfoyle, Retired Member of Napo and
Magistrate
It is perhaps only fitting that in the centenary year since the founding of the
Magistrates Association one of its former chairs should author this impassioned,
historically well informed and lucidly written plea enjoining those in power pre-
pared to listen, to cherish, protect and actively support the Magistracy. The subtitle
recalls the words of Lord Bingham who memorably dubbed this ancient judicial
institution a ‘democratic jewel beyond price’.
The book which is neatly divided into 12 chapters, with helpful sub-headings, is
well organised and enables the interested reader to follow the line of argument
which is richly sourced from the author’s personal and professional experiences as
a long serving and now retired magistrate who spent his time on the Kent Bench. At
times it can read as slightly repetitive; this is particularly so when he critically
examines some of the tensions arising from what Hosking sees as judicial overreach
in the way cases are allocated for summary case hearings. This following recent
legislative trends, notably the 2003 Courts Act, to employ more costly District Jud-
ges (DJ) to what he deems the detriment of magistrates’ recruitment and how this
move has other far reaching implications.
The opening chapters seek to lay out many of the recent ‘unwelcome organisa-
tional changes’ (p. 31) that have effectively transformed the judicial landscape, and
especially that of the local administration of justice, with court closures, amalga-
mation of benches, increases in out-of-court disposals, set against a wider but
contested background of diminishing regard for traditional sources of authority. As
well as the bruising diminution of the public service ethos, status and influence of
summary justice offered by the bench, underpinned as it is by the often misunder-
stood and undervalued voluntary unpaid role played by magistrates in keeping the
court system afloat.
Chapter four aims to provide a loose canvas of criminological explanations for
some of the recent causes of increases in certain types of crime and the differing
Book reviews 303
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