
Something a bit unusual this morning: a chance to watch a 20-minute interview with the greatest judge of his generation. You can see my discussion with Lord Bingham here.
And this article in today's Law Society Gazette includes extracts from the interview, as well as explaining that it was recorded to raise funds for the planned Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law. Reporters will find a full transcipt here.
There are not many retired chief justices who can chat so engagingly about the rule of law – the nearest thing we had, he said, to a "universal, secular religion".
But some people, I suggested, felt that the rule of law was enforced by minorities at the expense of the majority.
Lord Bingham accepted that human rights charters were there to protect minorities because, to a large extent, majorities could look after themselves. But he pointed out that the European Court had said ‘time and time again’ that there needed to be a balance between the rights of the individual and the rights of the community.
Watch the interview here or below and judge for yourself.
Post your comment
Joshua Rozenberg is an independent legal commentator who presents Law in Action on BBC Radio 4.
- Grounds for Hope
- Is Islam a Peaceful Religion? Daniel Johnson at the Oxford Union
- Standpoint's Autumn Salons
- Win Tickets to the Inaugural Standpoint Salon
- Is Hunter's History Bunk?
- Lawson Collects on Climate Change Bet
- The Cabinet meeting that kept Salman Rushdie alive
- Friends of Russia or Friends of Putin?
- The Kremlin Plays Old Tricks With Pussy Riot
- A Pyrrhic Victory for Georgian Democracy
- Abandoned in Moscow
- Standpoint's New Facebook Page
- No need to pander to the Bear, Mr Obama
- Govemania
- Standpoint Recommends: The Tacitus Lecture 2012
- Goodbye, Vienna
- Friends Indeed — Daniel Johnson on Gertrude Himmelfarb
- New Culture Forum Lecture: Jeremy Hunt
- Kangaroo Courts Arrive Down Under
- The BBC's painful novelties
- Money can't buy you love - Nichi Hodgson
- World Youth Day Diary: Day Four
- World Youth Day Diary: Day Three
- World Youth Day Diary: Day Two
- World Youth Day Diary: Day One
- Breivik and Anti-Muslim Bigotry
- Who'd be a TLA?


















