Rule of Law

Lord Bishop of Norwich Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Norwich]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Smith, for bringing this debate forward and congratulate her on her outstanding maiden speech. I also congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Laing of Elderslie, on hers.

While I feel an utter novice in this area, especially following such informed speeches, I am acutely aware that your Lordships have a role in reviewing decisions of the General Synod of the Church of England and passing—or not—our Measures into law. As such, our ecclesiastical laws are also laws of the land. The Church of England values its participation in this process, and, by virtue of that, engaging with any debate on the rule of law that strengthens the ordering of a safe, healthy and flourishing society.

The speech by the noble and learned Baroness the Advocate-General reminded me of themes that confront any pilgrim to the isle of Iona, a thin place so beloved of her late and admired father. For, in the hymns of the Iona Community, themes of justice, equality, fairness and transformation are entwined, living out in a very modern way the care and communal responsibility that St Columba lived in that ancient place of prayer.

Although the concept of the rule of law predates Judaism and Christianity, both faith communities later adopted and adapted substantial elements of legal codes and practices from antiquity to order their community life. In turn, they commended the core principles within these legal codes for application in wider society, with the hope of promoting communities in which all could flourish.

Among the important ways in which Judaism and Christianity modified the pre-existing legal tradition was to change a system that explicitly favoured the powerful in its laws into one that was infused with the idea of equal justice for all, regardless of social class. Christians, together with our Jewish neighbours, continue to believe this fundamental principle of equality of all human beings before the law—just as we believe in the equality of all human beings before God. It is perhaps one of the greatest gifts that Judaism and Christianity have given to cultures shaped by the Bible. In fact, the historian Tom Holland makes the case in his book Dominion that much of what is shared in so-called western culture—ideas about human rights and a legal system that treats all equally—has its underlying rationale in Christian belief and its influence on society in promoting the flourishing of all people.

Jesus, drawing on the Book of Leviticus, appeals to his followers to love our neighbours as ourselves. This commandment continues to order so many of the convictions about the rule of law that are expressed from these Benches and from others in your Lordships’ House. We see it lived out in our work in seeking to have legislative and judicial processes that balance protecting the innocent with the aim of rehabilitation and restoration of the guilty. We see it lived out in seeking to safeguard nature by honouring our commitments under international law and treaties to care for our planet home through fairness, transparency and accountability, and, for example, in combating illegal logging, poaching and wildlife trafficking.

We see it lived out also in our work in seeking a just and fair society that uses its laws and its judicial system to protect the vulnerable and marginalised. When Exodus calls for protection of the widow, the foreigner and the orphan, this is so that the most precarious and vulnerable receive legislative and judicial care. Of course, all people deserve our care and proactive concern, but protection for the most vulnerable may need to be enshrined in law and judicial decisions in order to ensure that the rule of law is administered equitably to all.

We have seen in recent years a sad willingness to disapply human rights legislation, particularly with respect to the most marginalised people in the asylum and criminal justice systems, in direct contravention of our proud traditions in this country. Does the noble and learned Lord the Attorney-General agree that when we allow a chipping away of universal rights, we are in fact betraying a proud tradition and undermining the society we all seek to build?