England's dreaming equity, trust and conscience - alastairhudson.com

eing something that comes from those people, and not as an expression of somethingpowerful that is being done to them.When you go out of this lecture theatre tonight onto the Mile End Road, I want you tolook into the faces of the strangers as they pass and I want you to think (possibly forthe first time) that all this law belongs to them. It is an expression of their humanityand of our collective endeavour as a society. If you really mean it, then it is anincredibly powerful idea. Law becomes a means of enabling those people to writetheir biographies and to achieve their ambitions: it is not simply an expression offorce which is imposed on them. Law becomes something which belongs to thosepeople, and it is not merely something which governments do to them. To us. Itbecomes a means of enabling our fellow human beings to live together and to cooperatewith one another. It genuinely becomes law for all.We have to drop forever our sepia-tinted dream of England and its law. In theimmortal words of John Lydon: ‘there’s no future in England’s dreaming’.The goal of our justice system – whether dealing with criminal law, or with rights toour homes, or whatever – should be to facilitate an open and equal access to justice. Itshould give our citizens an equal opportunity to write their own biographies with thesupport of the law. To paraphrase the words of John Smith:‘The scourges of social exclusion and the denial of access to justice are barriers,not only to opportunities for people, but to the creation of a dynamic andprosperous society. It is simply unacceptable to continue to waste our mostprecious resource – the extraordinary skills and talents of ordinary people.’- Rt Hon John Smith QC MP,Foreword to Social Justice – Strategies for National Renewal;The Report of the Commission on Social Justice, (Vintage, 1994).What we need is a legal system which supports equality of opportunity for ourcitizens. A legal system which ensures equality of access to justice for our citizens. Alaw that values our humanity.Those are the blueprints for my building.Thank you.37www.alastairhudson.com | © professor alastair hudson