Lord Woolf has held the most senior judicial posts in both the criminal and civil justice systems.

He served as a law lord in the country’s highest court; as Master of the Rolls the most senior civil judge in England and Wales and then from 2000 for five years as Lord Chief Justice, the highest job in the judicial hierarchy.

In this episode he talks about his time in office, which coincided with Tony Blair’s constitutional reforms, the biggest shakeup in relations between judges and the executive in recent years.

He discusses the problems of prison overcrowding, sentencing and the attitude of ministers to the rule of law.

The interview is conducted by Frances Gibb, the journalist and former legal editor of The Times, for a new landmark podcast series, The Judges: Power, Politics and the People, hosted by The University of Law.



Chapters:
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:06 Changes over career
00:04:39 Early life and getting started in the law
00:09:10 Antisemitism in the law
00:09:45 Reflections on being a barrister
00:10:40 Becoming a judge
00:12:07 Reflections on being a judge
00:15:00 Changes to sentencing
00:17:02 Reputation as a liberal judge
00:19:20 James Bulger case
00:23:45 Prisons
00:23:45 Tony Blair’s reforms to judicial system
00:29:20 State of the judiciary and the rule of law
00:34:55 Future challenges