Courts Under Stress

Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/wyaHRC0NQVaCf79KbbOldA

Participants:

Goodwin Liu: Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court and a visiting professor at Harvard, Columbia and Stanford law schools

Kate O’Regan: Emeritus Professor of Human Rights Law, University of Oxford, and a former judge of the South African Constitutional Court

Robert Sharpe: Distinguished Jurist in Residence, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, and a former judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal

Joshua Rozenberg (moderator): Legal commentator and an honorary Master of the Bench of Gray’s Inn

Description:

All around the world, courts are under stress. 

In the US, an energetic and forceful executive is testing the courts’ ability to deliver justice. Unwritten norms which safeguard the separation of powers and the rule of law are being systematically violated or ignored, disrupting the courts’ ability to serve their institutional purpose.

In Canada, the justice system is not sufficiently resourced, and courts are increasingly being asked to pronounce upon matters that formerly did not fall within the judicial function and can even put the neutrality of courts at risk.

In parts of the UK, the government is seeking to tackle unacceptable delays in the criminal courts by removing, in some cases, the right to jury trial. Ministers also want to get renewable energy projects off the ground more quickly by limiting the availability of judicial review.

How should judges respond to executive overreach, lack of resources, external pressure, and other attempts at undermining their authority? How can the judiciary retain its credibility in the face of polarising social and political controversies which find their way into the courtroom? How can we distinguish legitimate amendments to the functioning of courts from illegitimate ones? Courts Under Stress will explore these and other pressure points on today’s courts from an international perspective.

Participant profiles:

Goodwin Liu is an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, being sworn into office in 2011 and retained by the electorate in 2014 and 2022. Before joining the state’s highest court, Goodwin was Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the UC Berkeley School of Law. He continues to teach constitutional law as a visiting professor at Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford law schools. Goodwin is an elected member and Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is also an elected member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the American Law Institute, serving on its governing Council.

Kate O’Regan is Emeritus Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford and a former judge of the South African Constitutional Court (1994–2009). She was the inaugural director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford (2016–2025) and is now an Emeritus Fellow. Since her 15-year term at the South African Constitutional Court ended in 2009, Kate has amongst other things served as an ad hoc judge of the Supreme Court of Namibia (2010–2016), Chairperson of the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry (2012–2014), and as a member of the boards or advisory bodies of many NGOs working in the fields of democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and equality.

Robert Sharpe is currently Distinguished Jurist in Residence, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. He was a judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario from 1999 to 2020 and a trial judge from 1995 to 1999. He taught at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, from 1976 to 1988 and served under Chief Justice Brian Dickson as Executive Legal Officer at the Supreme Court Canada from 1988 to 1990. Robert was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto in 1990. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His publications include Good Judgment: Making Judicial Decisions (University of Toronto Press, 2018) and My Life in the Law: Lawyer, Scholar, Judge (University of Toronto Press, 2025).

Joshua Rozenberg is Britain’s most experienced full-time legal commentator. He is the recipient of several honorary doctorates and is an honorary Master of the Bench of Gray’s Inn. Joshua served as the BBC’s legal correspondent for 15 years (1985–2000) and was a regular contributor to the Guardian online (2010–2016), The Critic (2019–2022) and the Daily Telegraph (2000–2008). Since 2008, he has been a columnist for the Law Society Gazette, and he launched his Substack, A Lawyer Writes, in 2020. Joshua is the author of several books, the most recent being Enemies of the People? How Judges Shape Society (Bristol University Press, 2020).