Introduction and Overview

Abstract

The chapter explains the formal division of powers in the British state: the power of Parliament to make and develop the law; the power of the judiciary to interpret the law; and the power of the executive to implement the law. Under this constitutional arrangement, the three branches should, in general, be independent of each other. The judiciary in England and Wales advance their claim to independence through adherence to the rule of law and declarations of impartiality and incorruptibility. Utilizing archival data drawn from Home Office files, it examines the validity of these claims through various rules, including the Judges’ Rules, plea bargaining (or state-induced guilty pleas), and the Criminal Procedure Rules (CrimPR), which have regulated the boundaries between citizens and the state in criminal matters. Mindful of the strengths and limitations of archival data, it sets out the principal theme of the book: that the executive has secretly interfered with the judicial role while concurrently deceiving Parliament; the judiciary, for its part, under executive threats and persuasion, jettisoning common law principles leading, in the modern-era, to judicial and state policy going hand in hand with further impact upon former colonial territories.