A former lord chief justice of England and Wales has spoken out against the “vilification” of judges following comments made by Prince Harry.
The Duke of Sussex said the High Court ruling in his privacy case against the Daily Mail’s publisher Associated Newspapers was “a complete and obvious whitewash”.
Harry, along with six other claimants including Sir Elton John, claimed that the newspaper had obtained information about them illegally through phone hacking, bugging and blagging by journalists and private detectives.
But Judge Mr Justice Nicklin said the claimants had failed to prove the allegations.
Lord Burnett of Maldon, who was the head of the judiciary of England and Wales from 2017 to 2023, told the House of Lords on Thursday that the independence of the courts was paramount.
He said judges needed to “resist all pressure” from politicians, the press, large corporations, trade unions, activists and campaigners.
Lord Burnett said: “Judicial independence is undermined when judges are attacked personally for a decision, or their integrity is impugned.
“An expression of disagreement with the outcome of a case is entirely unobjectionable, but the growth of personal vilification, in which, regrettably, from time to time politicians have joined, crosses the line into a direct assault on the independence of the judiciary.
“Examples are multiplying, and even this week, a High Court judge has been accused by disappointed litigants of ‘a complete and obvious whitewash’.
“Judges speak through their judgments and cannot answer back.
“That is why the Constitutional Reform Act imposes duties on the lord chancellor to defend the independence of the judiciary.
“The (Constitution) Committee recognised that a culture of hostility towards the judiciary has been allowed to develop in recent years because of inappropriate, often inaccurate public criticism by politicians and others, with inadequate defence from government.”
His comments came as peers debated the Constitution Committee’s report titled The Rule Of Law: Holding The Line Against Tyranny And Anarchy.
A member of the committee, independent crossbench peer Baroness Andrews, warned that disrespect for the law had “been emboldened” since the Covid-19 pandemic, alluding to the partygate scandal being part of the reason for that.
She said: “Evidence suggests that disrespect for the law has been emboldened since Covid, with the paradox of draconian legislation, which was felt by many not to have been evenly applied.”
