Thread by @allthecitizens

🔴 The Judicial Review & Courts Bill went through a 2nd reading in the House of Lords last night.

In a powerful speech Baroness Chakrabarti set out why the bill is yet another 'attack on the rule of law from a govt neither conservative nor liberal in its instincts'

👇👇🔥🔥🧵

Judicial Review is the mechanism by which courts can hold the govt & public bodies to account, ensuring the lawful exercise of power

‘It exists to level the playing field between citizens & state’: Shami Chakrabarti

judiciary.uk/you-and-the-ju…

Proposed changes to Judicial Review will potentially ‘weaken judicial discretion, deny remedy to those affected by unlawful acts & have a chilling effect on judicial review’ says @TheLawSociety

lawsociety.org.uk/topics/human-r…

One of the most controversial changes proposed is ‘prospective-only quashing orders’ for some cases, which would treat past acts or decisions as invalid/unlawful only from the time of the judgement onwards

lawsociety.org.uk/en/topics/huma…

This could have profound consequences for those challenging unlawful acts or decisions by the govt or public bodies, as Shami Chakrabarti explained to the House of Lords last night 👇👇

A lack of remedy on previous unlawfulness might discourage claimants from seeking recourse in court since they would not benefit from remedy themselves.

And, as Shami Chakrabarti points out, we can’t rely on the Human Rights Act to protect us, as the govt appears to have set its sights on scrapping that too.

theguardian.com/law/2021/dec/1…