Mansion House speech by the Lady Chief Justice
The Lady Chief Justice, the Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, gave the following speech at Mansion House in London on Wednesday 2 July 2025.
My Lord Mayor, Lord Chancellor, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen. It seems like only yesterday when we were last here enjoying the City of London and my Lord Mayor’s peerless hospitality. Then it was a cold, dark November. Now it is a glorious summer. And it is the Lady Mayor-elect’s birthday, which she shares with Lord Mackay, who reaches a magnificent 98 today.
And it is my continuing pleasure to thank you for your kindness and generosity on behalf of the judiciary of England and Wales and your other guests tonight. According to Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice in the 1670s, a good judge should be “short and sparing at meals”. I am afraid that standards have slipped this evening.
As we all know, it is customary on occasions such as this to talk about the rule of law. To talk about its importance, about our commitment to it. Tonight though, I will leave that to my Lord Mayor and Lord Chancellor. As we all know, giving effect to the rule of law is what judges across England and Wales are doing on a daily basis, on cases that are greater in number, more complex and demanding than ever. And I would invite anyone to take advantage of the constitutional right to open justice to come into our courts and tribunals and see justice being done. I am delighted that so many current Members of Parliament have taken up the recent invitation to visit their local courts and tribunals. As all great writers know, far better not to tell the reader that the ‘moon is shining’. Far better to ‘show . . . [a] glint of light on broken glass’ (as Chekhov is reputed to have said). Let us continue to show our commitment. Rather than simply ‘tell it’.
So I want to focus on what we might call, with an apologetic nod to Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood, the Good, the Bad and the Eternal.
First, the Good. In the last few months, we have suffered the loss of two great judges, a former Master of the Rolls, Lord Etherton, and a serving member of the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice William Davis. As Claudius said in Hamlet, “When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions.” Lord Etherton was a passionate supporter of access to justice. Lord Justice William Davis was still very much in his prime, working as hard as ever right up to the day before he died. His contribution to criminal law was immense, particularly in the field of sentencing where his expertise was unparalleled. We miss him deeply, both as a professional colleague and a personal friend.
Change within the ranks of the judiciary is an inevitable feature – an eternal one, we might say – of the delivery of justice. But it is unusual to see so many giants of the Court of Appeal and the High Court, and before that the Bar, retire in a short period of time. I won’t name names. Tonight is not the place for individual praises, stories or valedictories – there would be neither words enough nor time to do justice to each of their contributions. It is, however, only right that I, that we, all recognise the immense contribution that our retiring senior judges this year have all made to judicial leadership, the administration of justice, and the development of the common law. Those who follow them have a proud legacy to maintain, and on which to build. I have every confidence that they will do so.
Some say that personal traits run in the family. This is certainly true for the law in the May and Kay families where the appointments of Juliet and Amanda mark the first time that the daughter of a Lord Justice becomes a Lady Justice. But it also true in our judicial family, where the courts are bulging with talent and the future leaders of the day. The announcement of Birss LJ as successor to Flaux LJ as Chancellor means that for the first time a former Circuit Judge becomes a Head of Division. We look forward to exciting new appointments both in the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
As well as tonight acknowledging the daily domestic work of our judiciary, let me also pay tribute once more to the work of our judges who contribute to our impressive programme of work in the international field. They have played a key role in developing and cementing the UK’s reputation as a centre for international trade, investment and – crucially – for international dispute resolution. We are, of course, operating in a challenging fiscal and geopolitical environment. Like my Lord Mayor, who has written similarly on the subject, I see this not as a threat but an opportunity. The UK is uniquely well qualified to show leadership in times of global instability and uncertainty because, more than anywhere else, our jurisdiction offers a steadfast adherence to justice and a longstanding reputation for excellence.
That the judiciary continues to promote the UK’s soft power internationally takes me to the City of London itself. My Lord Mayor, the City’s support for the judiciary is greatly appreciated. Its recent and very significant financial support for the work of the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts is one such case in point. As, of course, is its considerable investment in the construction of the City of London Courts, the completion of which draws ever closer. Support for our judiciary both nationally and internationally from the City is as strong and beneficial to us all today as it was when the first Lord Mayor, Henry FitzAilwin, was busy laying the groundwork for what would become the law of trespass and the criminal jury.
The last twelve months have, however, also shown us something of the Bad. That has been at its starkest where judicial security is concerned. Judges across many courts and tribunals have been subject to increasing and increasingly unacceptable sensationalist and inaccurate abuse. They – and sometimes their families – have been subject to grave threats and intimidation both inside and outside the courtroom, both online and in the physical world.
I have spoken on several occasions this year about the importance of judicial resilience (in its many guises). But an expectation of resilience does not extend to toleration of such behaviour. Judicial security training is helping. But more needs to be done to deal with what are not only attacks on individual judges, but attacks on our democratic process.
Without judges, acting independently and impartially, to interpret and give effect to the law, as Lord Reed rightly noted in the Unison case, our democratic process, our Parliamentary process, would be as nought. I know, my Lord Chancellor, that you very much agree that such abusive behaviour should not be tolerated. I look forward to continuing to work with you, the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS to ensure that the operational security taskforce has sufficient support and resources to promote effective judicial security.
That, of course, is a starting point. More will, no doubt, need to be done to effect a cultural shift away from such abuse and back towards the more reasoned scrutiny and debate that is a sign of a healthy and robust democratic society, back to the scrutiny and debate regarding the issues that is to be welcomed, and indeed invited.
Another regular feature of these speeches in recent years has been to talk about the benefits that are to be derived from increasing digitisation and the use of AI. Both keep the Master of the Rolls very busy indeed.
This year has, however, highlighted quite starkly some of the risks that new developments can bring, along with their benefits. We all looked on in wonder, and some horror, at reports from the United States of lawyers there citing ‘hallucinatory’ judgments, conjured up by AI Chatbots. Over the course of the last twelve months we have seen litigants-in-person cite such fake judgments in the tribunals. We have recently seen cases arise where lawyers have even done so in our courts.
I am confident that with time, training and cautious incrementalism, the use of AI by lawyers and by judges will be as beneficial as it is inevitable. That does not mean, however, that we can or will be complacent. The legal profession needs to be ever-vigilant and robust in its approach to the use of AI. That means careful oversight by legal services regulators and more training and support for lawyers, particularly trainees and those in the early years of their careers, to enable them to use AI circumspectly and usefully. I am sure that we can and will learn from recent experiences, and that AI can be used appropriately as a tool to assist lawyers and judges to promote fairer, more efficient and effective access to the law and justice. As I have heard it said, I want AI to do my laundry, so that I can do art.
We have had the Good. We have had the Bad. But what about the Eternal? My Lord Mayor, my Lord Chancellor, I think we can all agree that our magnificent judges, whether they sit in the civil courts, the family courts, the criminal courts, the tribunals, or as magistrates or coroners, and the work that they do under difficult, increasingly difficult, conditions, are the beating heart of our justice system. It may not seem it when we sit in court, grappling with a last minute submission, an unwieldy electronic bundle, a missing file or technology that is not perhaps as effective as we might hope, but it is true for the litigants in front of us and for Society as a whole, that we represent justice. I am sure that my Lord Mayor, my Lord Chancellor, you join me in my thanks to the judges of England and Wales, for their work – for ensuring, in the words of Justinian, that the ‘constant and perpetual wish to render everyone [their] due’ is achieved according to law.[1]
With that firmly in mind, I very much look forward over the next twelve months to accentuating the positive, tackling the negative, and leaning into the eternal. I am sure that, if we continue to work together effectively, Judiciary, Government and the City, we will secure each of those three aims, all to the benefit of Society as a whole. That is, however, for the future.
For tonight, my Lord Mayor, on behalf of His Majesty’s judges, please let me thank you and this City for the support that you continue to provide to the judiciary in our many joint endeavours and may I especially thank you for this most generous occasion. I say this because it is not just necessary but absolutely right to show the whole of the moon. Thank you.
[1] Thomas (ed), Justinian’s Institutes, (Cornell University Press) (1987).