The Future

Abstract

The preceding chapters have sketched the changing face of the magistracy, both lay and professional, during the past forty years. I have endeavoured to show that the administration of justice develops as a continuing process. The future is likely to be a projection of the past and the present, and I have indicated certain changes which are predictable, and some which I think desirable, in the foreseeable future. Among these are unified court administration, advanced training for justices within the limitations inherent in a part-time system, clarification of the position of the justices’ clerk, better information to assist the sentencer, improved procedure and work distribution to avoid delays and increase efficiency, and the continuing need, in spite of recent changes in the arrangements for selecting lay justices, for still better methods of ensuring that all those appointed to the bench are entirely suitable for the work and are drawn from all the principal sectors of the population.