Lincoln’s Inn.

My knowledge of the legal system is as much from TV as from my occasional appearances before judges in court (twice) and in Parliament (once).¹In my earliest days as a freelance journalist, I was taken to court over a very small tax bill. Many years later, I appeared in the High Court as a witness against some animal rights protestors; around then I appeared before a joint Lords and Commons Human Rights committee, arguing that the media and the courts were too permissive about disruptive and vicious protest - my argument was greeted by Lord Lester with lofty disdain. ) I have been a tourist observer of some judges, both civil and criminal, and felt a lot of respect and a batsqueak of anxiety. I have sometimes felt that the less we know about judges as people, the better for justice. And yet I fell on the memoir As in Memory Long (2017) by Lord Justice Peter Millett (1932-2021), with a will. It is deliberately but almost slyly revelatory. It was encountered by chance, but exerted a peculiar spell. Oddly, but above all, Millett was not a celebrity judge. He was not a Woolf, Hoffman, Sumption, Bingham or Lester and I prefer neglected byways to well-trodden highways. Perhaps that’s because I am struck that fame conduces to the performative. A couple of warnings. Peter Millett reveals himself to have had a certain pettiness in his nature. I have not skated over this. And I repeat: I am not equipped to judge him as a judge. Luckily, I have come across Colin Paterson,  an excellent writer who is, and nearly does. Read more...