Review: The Rule of Law – by Tom Bingham

Tom Bingham is a senior and well-respected British judge. He held office as Master of the Rolls, Chief Justice of England and Wales and Senior Law Lord of the United Kingdom. In this concise yet precise book he covers the fundamental priniciples of the Rule of Law and discusses it as it is reflected here in our country and also makes comparisons with the situation in foreign countries where the Rule of Law might be interpreted slightly differently. There are twelve neat chapters, each focussed on a clear element of the main points the author wishes to illustrate. Criminal Law, Civil Law and Hybrid Courts are all examined and the way that the separate legislative and executive powers interact are explored. We see many references to Parlliament and also to the monarch as ‘The King is the Law’.

Of most interest to me were the chapters on Human Rights, Equality Before the Law aswell as A Fair Trial. I have only ever had brief glimpses of Criminal and Civil courts in action but under the Mental Health Act 1983 I have sat through probably about 75-100 hybrid court MHRT Mental Health Review Tribunal Hearings. In these I have probably lost about 90% of my cases over a 28 year period. I therefore have zero faith in the British Justice system. as I have lost cases based on outright lies from false evidence being presented to the court and the legal, medical and lay memebers consistently ignoring anything either I or my legal representativers state. Apparently, according to Mr. Bingham, these hybrid courts also have a duty to be fair, independent and just, which they simply are not. They also seem to just totally ignore Human Rights Law, at National, European and International level.In the Epilogue of the book, Bingham states: ‘It described as ‘unacceptable’ abritrary arrests, secret trials, indefinite detention without trial, cruel or degrading treatment or punishment and intimidation or corruption in the electoral process.’ The MHA and MHRT courts ignore every single one of these points that Bingham makes – I know they are kanagaroo courts and despite any judgements to me are obvioulsy illegal and injust – but you just have to get on. Eventually injustice, if allowed to perpetuate, spreads across the whole of society like a cancer.

The book, although brief, is a great introduction to someone contemplating studying law at a decent level. It certainly drew my attention to a lot of points and I found the case law examples to be most interesting. The chapter on terrorism was extremely interesting and I looked keenly at the examples of the USA with its CIA extraordinary rendition prgramme to places like Guantanamo Bay etc for captured terrorist combatants in the War on Terror. It certainly raises some extremely delicate legal issues on exactly how to appproach dealing with delicate yet important matters that affect society at large.

I’d recommend this text to anyone who wants to learn more about how our country functions and exactly what the law here represents and actually means. I think law is an area that confuses the hell out of most people and that the general public are on the whole ignorant to some of the most fundamental and basic points of principle and protections it offers.