Magna Carta's shadow

I would like to promise that this will be the last you hear of the Global Law Summit, but I have little doubt that, for better or worse, and much like Magna Carta, its legacy will cast a long shadow.

If you have been following the @SJ_Weekly Twitter account you will be familiar with some of the events of the past week from both inside and outside the QEII Centre in Westminster. However, you will not be surprised to learn that there were many meetings and events taking place around the summit that not even we were invited to. 

Among the 2,200 delegates from 130 countries were numerous attorneys-general, justice ministers, politicians, judges, bar leaders and expert speakers from home and abroad. Even the secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, took time out of his hectic schedule to offer up his endorsement in what was a 30-second commercial ‘live’ from New York.

However, it was what went on in private, away from the media spotlight that, I hope, will really make a difference to Magna Carta’s celebrated legacy. It was those enjoying lunch at Downing Street, at a reception at Buckingham Palace, or a private audience with the Lord Chancellor who are the real power players. 

That said, people power was being exercised in a very different way just around the corner on Monday. A gathering of a few hundred people, many of whom would have liked their own private meeting with Chris Grayling, came together to protest the government’s apparent disregard for some of Magna Carta’s key principles.

 The bad news for the protesters – among them several politicians, eminent QCs and Silk’s Maxine Peake – was that the security cordon in place in Westminster of umpteen police and private security guards ensured that the only way delegates would hear of any dissent would be from within the boundary.

And dissent they did, from sponsors bemoaning the lack of students present unable to afford the ticket price, to representations from an absentee Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty (who boycotted the event because of a government ‘which has decimated access to justice’), and Lord Pannick QC, who drew supportive laughter from the audience in his criticism of the Lord Chancellor.

Regardless of your opinion on the event, there is little doubt that the world came to visit. I would love to say it was not a celebration of back-slapping and an out-dated old boys gathering. It was both of these things, but it also showed the best of London, our heritage and the best of our world class legal talent. It even went further than many expected in recognising the fundamental importance of the rule of law.

As he closed the event, even the president of the Supreme Court, Lord Neuberger, sent each of us away with a clear message: “Maintaining the rule of law can be demanding. So I think an important message we should all take away from this summit should be: don’t just say it, do it. Words are easy, but actions are more difficult, and it’s ultimately actions which matter.” 

I was sitting immediately behind many of the government’s ministers of justice as those words were spoken. Between the flashbulbs of stolen photo-ops and recital of tired messages, I hope that message was the one that got through.