Law Hezzonor: Fount of Justice

One odd side effect of the royal butler trial has been a call for the Queen to be subject to court rules, a problem ably discussed in the Telegraph editorial, Regina v Regina. The monarch is the Fount of Justice, from whom British justice flows. It would be genuine upheaval of what the British judicial system is about to subject the fount of justice to judicial procedures. I have regularly argued that the judicial powers exercised on the monarch's behalf by the Prime Minister should be given to an independent Lord Chancellor (appointed independently by another independent Appointments Commission, exercising the Monarch's powers as Fount of Honour), and I personally see no problem when the Monarch may be engaged in High Crimes and Misdemeanors (to coin a phrase) of subjecting the Monarch's person to appropriate proceedings (almost certainly ad hoc).

Yet the general principle of monarch as witness and so on seems wrong to me. The Monarch is not above the law, nor is she the law (shades of Judge Dredd), but is an embodiment of the law, and it is that dignified role that demands different treatment. The USA, of course, has no such dignified embodiment, however much an invariably squabblng Supreme Court attempts to portray itself. This may be part of the reason for the low opinion of the legal system in America generally.
· Regina v Regina [Telegraon (London) ]

A cacophony of Hero-Judges clamour for immortality

WHEN poet and publisher Max Harris described the Australian landscape in the early 1960s as being peopled with good blokes and bastards, but not heroes, he did not foresee the rise and rise of the hero-judge.
· Horrror-Judge. [The Australian]