Adversarial And Inquisitorial Justice System

Professor John Rawls believed one element of justice is equality; equality of opportunity and equal distribution of rights, powers, freedoms and resources in society (The Open University, (OU), 2016d, 7.1). This essay will look to see if justice delivered by the courts of England and Wales via the adversarial system is providing equality in the wake of recent budget cuts to legal aid, or whether adoption of an inquisitorial system is required. To do this, the nature of the cuts and changes to legal aid will be discussed, explanations of an adversarial and inquisitorial justice systems, and the effects the budget cuts have affected access to justice will be discussed. A conclusion as to whether there is a need for the justice system of England …show more content…
Legal aid was therefore created in 1949, and Steel and Morris V United Kingdom [2005] 41 EHRR 22, established that state-funded legal representation is a limited right under Article 6 of the ECHR. Legal aid is one …show more content…
Lord Neuberger in the Tom Sargant Memorial Lecture in October 2013 recognised that costs for legal aid are too high, but also that there was a need for access to justice. Lord Neuberger went on to caution that in view of the rule of law, cost cutting should be scrutinised, as eligibility for legal aid has been progressively reduced and deprive the needy of protection. Neuberger also identified that there is a likelihood of people that are not eligible for legal aid and cannot afford the expense of court proceedings are likely to drop their cases, therefore not having access to justice and denial of justice where not everyone is subject to the rule of law. Neuberger also said that where inefficient cases are perused, they can be inefficient, take up more court time and resultantly increase costs and