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Justice

     worries more about the latter) and the Right
 35 (which worries more about the former). Both
  the ‘retreat from prosecution’ and the convic-
  tions, he insists, are miscarriages of justice.
 5    These numbers are so high, he argues, that
  the system is in crisis. David Rose’s diagnosis
 40 of its defects is compelling. And his proposals
  for reform? Among others: a new constitutio-
  nal settlement, the simplification of the laws of
  evidence, the codification of the criminal law,
 

Why

 and a ‘transformed prosecution service’. These
 

justice

45 proposals, Rose accepts, in a melancholy com-
 

is unjust

 ment, ‘lie beyond the far horizon’. Even the
 Anthony Julius modest proposal of research into jury decision-
  making would require amending legislation
 praises an which the present Government shows no inter-
 examination of50 est in pursuing.
 our legal system6    Reformers of the criminal-justice system
  have to face up to four uncomfortable truths.
 In the Name of the Law: The First, no structure performs up to its blueprint.
 Collapse of Criminal Justice Second, any system which depends on people
 by David Rose55 to run it will be put under strain by corruptibi-
  lity and incompetence. Third, no structure can
  withstand infinite pressure: the war against ter-
  rorism, and the sheer numbers being processed,
  are in part responsible for the present crisis,
1    TWO KINDS of people are injured by crime:60 and the solutions to these lie beyond reform of
 the victims of crime, and those unjustly ac- the criminal-justice system itself. Fourth, the
 cused of those crimes. They may each be system cannot be addressed as a problem in
 injured or shamed; they may lose their proper- isolation. Its defects are in certain respects the
5 ty or their jobs. They will experience pain and defects of our society as a whole.
 distress; they may never recover from their765    It is the great merit of David Rose’s book
 subjection to criminal or state power. that it does not flinch from these truths: ‘if
2    The support they will receive is likely to be criminal justice is collapsing, it is only part of a
 similarly patchy. Victims of crime may find deeper social palsy’.
10 that the crimes against them are never investi-8    Though Rose is now a journalist, he is a his-
 gated; their injuries may not be adequately70 torian by training; the book consists of very
 compensated. Victims of wrongful prosecution much more than mere stitched-together news
 may find that the evidence against them is articles. But because he is a journalist, he
 manufactured; the lawyers defending them knows how to tell stories that resonate. He has
15 may be incompetent or indifferent to their the imagination to relate individual cases of
 predicament - or both.75 injustice to a system that is overall in crisis. He
3    One of the state’s primary duties is to protect gives detailed accounts of that system’s many
 the lives and property of its citizens. This scandals.
 means securing them against both crime and9    There is also a fascinating chapter about
20 wrongful prosecution. These are two aspects of Rose’s experience shadowing the Kilburn
 the same duty, if only because every time an in-80 police: the disillusion of officers of all ranks
 nocent man is convicted, the true offender goes with English criminal justice is compellingly
 free. Criminal-justice systems that work will demonstrated. The case he makes for the link
 shield the innocent while convicting the guilty. between crime and social deprivation seems to
25 Is ours such a system? me to be unanswerable. The fact that the
4    Not according to David Rose. Indeed, it is so85 Crown Prosecution Service gives cost prece-
 unsuccessful that while the innocent are rou- dence over justice is devastatingly exposed. If
 tinely convicted, the guilty equally routinely there is one book that any incoming Home
 avoid trial. His outstanding book spares Secretary should read, it is this one. It is a fine
30 neither police, prosecutors, defence lawyers, work.
 nor judges. His concern at the numbers of the 
 wrongly unprosecuted and the wrongly con-90 Anthony Julius is a partner at Mishcon de
 victed distances him both from the Left (which Reya solicitors.
  


‘The Sunday Telegraph’, February 11,
1996