Author Description

The attitudes of the judiciary to the exercise of power by such public bodies as Ministers of the Crown and local authorities form an important part of the history of our time. In this study, John Griffith traces the development of these judicial attitudes since 1920, focusing on a series of exemplary popularism in the early 1920s; housing in the 1930s; internment in World War II; the Suez affair of 1956; Lord Reid and other judges in the 1960s (with special reference to industrial relations); and the Thatcher era of the 1980s. Professor Griffith demonstrates how judicial attitudes, especially in the Court of Appeal and the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, changed in this period, depending in part on the personalities of the judiciary and in part on the politics of Governments. He concludes that there has been a decline in judicial performance during the 1980s which may now be reversed in the light of more recent developments. This book should be useful to students, teachers and all those interested in contemporary history, law and politics.