Judges warned against straying in to politics - by top judge

A High Court judge quashed restructuring plans which would have seen cuts to library services by Somerset County Council and Gloucestershire County Council in an attempt to make cash savings.

Another judge ruled Isle of Wight Council's plans to cut social care were unlawful, and another struck down Sefton Council's plans to freeze fees for local residential care homes.

Each time the judges ruled the councils made fatal legal errors and sent them back to the drawing board.

In his annual press briefing, Lord Judge said: “Judges have to be careful to remember that we are enforcing the law. As to that, we have no choice – we enforce the law as we find it to be.

"I think we have to be careful to remember that we can't administer the responsibilities which others have. So local authorities have responsibilities, and so on and so forth.

"And I think there is occasionally a danger of an overlap between us deciding what the law is, and saying what it is, and making a judgment accordingly.

"And occasionally, I suppose it's inevitable, where what we are doing, and the orders we make, have an impact on the administration for which others are responsible."

"So when I say I'm sympathetic with that, with Mr Sumption's view, it is a genuine sense of sympathy.

"We have to be careful to make sure we stay within our proper function."

Lord Judge also said the law of murder was “fiendishly difficult” and called for “careful” reform.

He described 2006 Law Commission recommendations for a system of first and second degree murder as “provocative but very interesting”.

He stopped short of publicly backing such a system because it was a “political question” but said MPs should be given a free vote on the issue.

Introduction of murder by degree would mean an end to mandatory life terms for all murderers because those in the lower tier would not automatically face the ultimate punishment.

Lord Judge suggested such a move would end the calls by campaigners to scrap mandatory life overall.

However, the Government said it had not plans to change the law or end mandatory life terms for murder.

It came as legal experts on the Homicide Review Advisory Group, which includes judges, academics and former QCs, said neither mandatory sentences nor the system for setting minimum terms allow for sentences to match individual cases. A so-called mercy killing attracts the same mandatory life penalty as serial killings, the group said.