The James Smart Lecture
| Author | Lord Wheatley |
| Date | 01 July 1975 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7504800302 |
| Published date | 01 July 1975 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Rt.
HOD.
LORD
WHEATLEY,
P.C.,
LL.D.
The
Lord
Justice Clerk
THE JAMES
SMART
LECTURE1
The Police and the Law
This is the second time in the four years of its existence that
this lecture has been given by one of the Judges of the High Court
in Scotland.
It
is perhaps not inappropriate that this should be
so, because Judges
and
police officers, each in their own way, are
engaged in the administration of justice. In fact, as things have
developed, police officers are expected to know as much, if not
more, about, say, the law of evidence than are many lawyers. In
this regard I am sure that the various training courses run by the
police are of great value.
By a strange paradox Judges and the law which they are called
upon to administer and develop are sometimes the butt of criticism
from two opposing angles. On
the
one hand they are accused of
leaning backwards to help the criminal, and in the process crib-
bing
and
confining the police in their work, while on the other
they are said to work
hand
in hand with the police to secure con-
victions against people whom the police have been instrumental
in bringing to court. Since neither of these is the case, it is perhaps
not
inappropriate that at the outset I should seek to set
out
the
respective roles of the Judiciary and the police in
our
system of
administration of justice.
That
may seem to be an elementary
exercise, but in view of the misconceptions which appear to exist
in certain quarters, they
are
worthy of re-stating.
In a recent leader in a national newspaper, Judges were grouped
with a number of other bodies as part of the "establishment", and
the suggestion seemed to be
that
all these bodies, including the
Judges, were ranged together against the individual members of
society.
If
that be the proper interpretation of that leading article,
then let me contradiot it
and
putthe
record straight. The function
of a Judge is to administer fairly and impartially the law as it has
been established and according to the rules which have been laid
down. He is not at liberty to apply the law as he would personally
like it to be; he has to administer the law as it is at the time. Of
course, Judges are involved in the development of the law, but
until the law has been so developed and accepted, and become
part
of ,the law of the land, a Judge has to administer the law which is
179 July 1975
To continue reading
Request your trial