Justice (stylised "JUSTICE") is a
human rights
Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
and law reform organisation based in the United Kingdom. It is the British section of the
International Commission of Jurists
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is supported by an International Secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland, and staffed by lawyers drawn from a wide range of jurisdi ...
, the international human rights organisation of
lawyers
A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters.
The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as wel ...
devoted to the legal protection of human rights worldwide. Members of Justice are predominantly
barristers
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...
and
solicitors
A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...
,
judge
A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...
s, legal academics, and law students.
Justice is independent and all-party, having representatives of the three major political parties on its ruling Council. It is a
registered charity
A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good).
The legal definitio ...
under English law.
Justice's chief executive is Fiona Rutherford, and the chair of the JUSTICE Council is
Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws QC.
History
1957–2000
Justice was founded in 1957, following the visit of a group of British lawyers to observe the treason trials of members of the
African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...
(ANC) in
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
South Africa and the show-trials in communist Hungary. Its first chairman was
Hartley Shawcross, the chief British prosecutor at
Nuremberg
Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
. Other founding members included
Sir John Galway Foster QC, and
Peter Benenson
Peter Benenson (born Peter James Henry Solomon; 31 July 1921 – 25 February 2005) was a British barrister, human rights activist and the founder of the human rights group Amnesty International (AI); a global movement of more than 10 million pe ...
who later established
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
. Indeed, when AI first started in 1961, it shared its offices with JUSTICE.
In 1958, it became the British section of the
International Commission of Jurists
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is supported by an International Secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland, and staffed by lawyers drawn from a wide range of jurisdi ...
(ICJ). The original terms of Justice's constitution committed it "to uphold and strengthen the principles of the Rule of Law in the territories for which the British Parliament is directly or ultimately responsible: in particular, to assist in the administration of justice and in the preservation of the fundamental liberties of the individual". Indeed, JUSTICE itself gave rise to a number of subordinate branches in what were then still British colonies and dependent territories. As each of these countries moved towards independence in the 1960s, the branches reconstituted themselves as national sections of the ICJ. This, in turn, shifted the emphasis of Justice's own work towards the UK itself.
Thus, although founded with an international orientation, Justice quickly established a specific focus on the rule of law and protection of fundamental rights in the UK. Through the work of its first secretary,
Tom Sargant OBE, Justice rapidly developed expertise in cases involving
miscarriages of justice
A miscarriage of justice occurs when an unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Innocent p ...
, and secured the release of many prisoners who had been wrongly imprisoned. Sargant was instrumental in the establishment of the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
series
''Rough Justice'', which led to the release from prison of eighteen victims of miscarriages of justice.
At the same time Justice developed as a policy organisation, producing reports that helped establish the UK's
ombudsman
An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...
system, the
Criminal Injuries Compensation Board
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) is an executive agency of the UK Government. The Authority, established in 1996 and based in Glasgow, administers a compensation scheme for injuries caused to victims of violent crime in Engla ...
, the
Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (c. 53) of the UK Parliament enables some criminal convictions to be ignored after a rehabilitation period. Its purpose is that people do not have a lifelong blot on their records because of a relatively ...
, the
Data Protection Act 1998
The Data Protection Act 1998 (c. 29) (DPA) was an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom designed to protect personal data stored on computers or in an organised paper filing system. It enacted provisions from the European Union (EU) Data Pr ...
, and the
Criminal Cases Review Commission
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is the statutory body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It was established by Section 8 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 and be ...
. Similarly, many of the measures contained in the
Constitutional Reform Act 2005
The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, relevant to UK constitutional law. It provides for a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to take over the previous appellate jurisdiction of the Law ...
were previously put forward by JUSTICE. Through the 1990s it established and developed programmes on human rights legislation, criminal justice, asylum and immigration, discrimination and privacy. It campaigned for the incorporation of the
European Convention on Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is a Supranational law, supranational convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Draf ...
into UK law by way of the
Human Rights Act 1998
The Human Rights Act 1998 (c. 42) is an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received royal assent on 9 November 1998, and came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim was to incorporate into UK law the ...
.
Since 2000
In October 2009, it became the first NGO to intervene in a case before the
UK Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (initialism: UKSC) is the final court of appeal for all civil cases in the United Kingdom and all criminal cases originating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as some limited criminal cases ...
in the case of
HM Treasury v Ahmed.
Following Justice's intervention in
Cadder v HM Advocate
''Cadder v HM Advocate'' 010UKSC 43 (26 October 2010) is a decision in which the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom held that the way in which police in Scotland detained suspects was not compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights a ...
, JUSTICE Scotland was launched in July 2012. The first JUSTICE Scotland working party report, looking at legal assistance in police stations, was published in July 2018.
Following the suspension of all new trials due to the
2020 Covid-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Justice led a series of mock virtual trials to examine viability and safety.
Leadership
Previous directors of Justice include Dame
Anne Owers CBE,
Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons,
Leah Levin OBE, a founder and trustee of
Redress, and Andrea Coomber QC (Hon), chief executive of the
Howard League for Penal Reform. Previous chairs of Justice include
Lord Alexander of Weedon QC,
Lord Goodhart QC, Paul Seighart,
and
Lord Steyn
Johan van Zyl Steyn, Baron Steyn, PC (15 August 1932 – 28 November 2017) was a South African-British judge, until September 2005 a Law Lord. He sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
Early life and education
Steyn was born in Stelle ...
, a former Law Lord.
Current work
The main areas of Justice's work are:
* Human rights
* Criminal justice
* EU law
* The rule of law
Justice's focus is on UK law but its work involves highlighting the importance of international human rights law as well as bringing to bear the insights of comparative analysis of other jurisdictions. European law plays an increasingly large role in this work. It works primarily by briefing parliamentarians and policy-makers on the human rights implications of legislation. As a policy organisation it is less involved in overt campaigning and individual casework and more on providing independent, expert legal analysis on matters of fundamental rights. It also works at the European and international levels, lobbying the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
institutions, the
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...
and the various
United Nations treaty bodies.
Each of Justice's areas of work in turn covers a broad range of issues, including asylum and immigration, counter-terrorism, equality and discrimination, privacy, EU Freedom Justice and Security issues, legal aid and access to justice, as well as constitutional issues tied to the role of the judiciary and parliamentary scrutiny of legislation.
Justice also has a long history of intervening in cases of public importance involving the protection of fundamental rights. To this end, it has intervened before in cases before the Court of Appeal and the
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
, the
Privy Council, the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...
, and the
European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ), officially the Court of Justice (), is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Union, it is tasked with interpreting ...
.
See also
*
Rule According to Higher Law
The rule according to a higher law is a philosophical concept that no law may be enforced by the government unless it conforms with certain universal principles (written or unwritten) of fairness, morality, and justice. Thus, ''the rule accordin ...
References
External links
*{{official web site, justice.org.uk
1957 establishments in the United Kingdom
Charities based in England
Human rights organisations based in the United Kingdom