1. Introduction 2. Images of Judges 3 Where Do English and Welsh Judges Come From? 4. The First Step on the Ladder: Becoming a Part-time Judge 5. Becoming Her Majesty's Judge 6. Training 7. Judges'Working Personality 8. Criminal Business: District Judges in the Magistrates' Court 9. Criminal Business: Circuit Judges in the Crown Court 10. Judges and Juries 11. Civil Business in the County Court 12. Family Judges: The Patience of Job and the Judgment of Solomon 13. High Court Business 14. The Court of Appeal 15. Brenda and the Law Lords Transform into the Supremes 16. Judges on Judges 17. Tools of the Trade 18. The World of Judges from 2011
Penny Darbyshire has a first degree in law, a master's degree in criminology and a Ph D in socio-legal studies. She has been a lecturer, senior lecturer and reader at Kingston University since 1978. She is also an adjunct associate professor, University of Notre Dame, London Law Centre, and was a visiting lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley, from 1992 until 1993.
Penny Darbyshire has produced a fascinating book of unparalleled
detail on the working and personal lives of judges in England and
Wales...essential reading for anyone who wishes to comment on the
judiciary with authority.
*Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, 34(2)*
This is an important, interesting and, above all, enjoyable
book...For those with only a passing familiarity with the work of
judges, there will be much to learn. For seasoned court-watchers,
there will also be much of interest; it is riveting to read longer
serving judges recount in their own words the total absence of
formal training that accompanied their elevation to the bench and
the almost unimaginable casualness of the process by which they
were appointed in the first place. More than anything, this is an
enjoyable book. It is to Darbyshire's credit that the book is not
only highly informative, but thoroughly absorbing as well.
*Legal Studies, Volume 32(4)*
Dr Darbyshire was given a warm welcome by her research subjects and
extraordinarily open access: she freely recounts her impressions as
she watches judges at all levels at work--and over lunch--over many
years. Her very sympathetic and entertaining account may perhaps
surprise many, particularly those outside the legal system.
"Insiders" will be particularly entertained to identify the
individual characters she describes so clearly.
*Archbold Review, 2011, 10, 9*
...a formidable, utterly fascinating and certainly well written
piece of research. If you wish to read a well-rounded and
insightful commentary on the experience of modern judging, this
book is to be highly recommended.
*Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green
Chambers*
Penny Darbyshire, the author of this impressive work, has a first
degree in law, a master's in criminology and a PhD in socio-legal
studies. With those qualifications and existing research expertise
in the legal system under her belt she was well placed to take on
the formidable task of revealing the truth about the working lives
of judges...The findings are a testament to her skill as a
researcher and the book is a testament to her skill as a writer.
Anyone who is interested in judges and the courtroom should read
this truly unique book. I predict that they will not be
disappointed and I will not be surprised if Penny Darbyshire wins
an award or two for this book.
*Expert Witness Institute Newsletter, December 2011*
Sitting in Judgment: The Working Lives of Judges by Penny
Darbyshire, is a weighty work. She has spent seven years
researching the judiciary and sitting alongside them. The result is
a rare exposé of what judges do, think and how they and the system
have changed.…Darbyshire's painstaking work contains some gems and
sheds some light on a world that remains remote to most.
*The Times, 29th September 2011*
Although little she says will come as a surprise to anyone who has
ever spoken to a judge, Darbyshire has some justification for
contrasting the fruits of her academic research with the 'cruel and
lazy journalism' that has left the public imagining the typical
judge to be an 'archaic media folk-devil' dressed up like a
pantomime character…Darbyshire's book is probably at its most
revealing in showing how judges used to be appointed before the
system was reformed; some, she discovered, had applied
unsuccessfully for silk and were offered a seat on the circuit
bench as a consolation prize. She reminds us, though, of a system
in which all judges were appointed by a cabinet minister.
*Law Society Gazette, 6th October 2011*
Darbyshire's major contribution, and that of other socio-legal
scholars like her, lies in the exposure of the many injustices,
incompetence and inefficiencies that have blighted and continue to
blight our legal system...What this book does especially well is to
show the extent to which the judges, almost as much as the courts'
hapless consumers, suffer from and are frustrated by the appalling
inadequacies of the UK's woefully underfunded civil and criminal
justice systems.
*Times Higher Education, 3rd November 2011*
I have now had the pleasure of reading a deal of your book, and I
am filled with admiration for it. Many congratulations on a
remarkable achievement – exceedingly well researched,
comprehensive, perceptive, lucid, illuminating and valuable. These
are just a few of the positive adjectives one could shower on this
book. But perhaps the most important is the last, because 'Sitting
in Judgment' will be a valuable resource for anyone who really
wishes to understand what happens on both sides of the judge's
courtroom door, the thinking that informs it and, importantly, the
difficulties that have to be confronted.
*His Honour Geoffrey Rivlin QC*
… this is a very readable, well-written, frank, authoritative and
enjoyable account of the reality of the day-to-day working lives of
English judges. Anyone interested in what really happens in the
English courts, in the reality of professional life for judges at
whatever level of the English system and the context in which
judicial decisions are made in those courts will be unlikely to
find a more gritty and realistic account.
*Scolag (Scottish Legal Action Group Bulletin)*
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