by Ross Clark, Spectator
The facade of Garden Court Chambers in Lincoln’s Inn Fields is reassuringly traditional. The barristers who work there occupy buildings which were once home to the Earl of Sandwich and the Tory prime minister Spencer Perceval. If there were any building in London in which wigs and gowns would seem a natural form of dress, it would be here.
The chambers have recently been in the news as the home of Franck Magennis, a proudly communist barrister who is acting pro bono for Hamas in its quest to overturn the government’s decision to classify it as a terrorist group. (Garden Court said in a statement last month: ‘The barrister concerned has chosen to undertake this application and publicise it in his individual capacity. This in no way indicates that Garden Court Chambers supports his client.’)
But the facade is just that. For behind the pedimented Georgian windows there operates arguably the most radically effective cell of left-wing activists in Britain. Barristers are supposed to adhere to the cab-rank principle: they act for the first client who comes calling. Many of Garden Court’s lawyers, however, though they operate across a wide range of cases, appear to be united by one thing – their unerring tendency to champion the most left-wing causes conceivable.
Editorial comment from Michael Gove:
In this week’s issue, Ross Clark investigates perhaps the most powerful left-wing institution in the country: Garden Court Chambers. The radical lawyers based there have used their formidable skills to keep foreign criminals in the UK under human rights law, have overturned democratically elected government policy in climate change, have justified criminal damage in defence of net zero and have acted pro bono for the terrorists of Hamas. Barristers are expected to follow the cab-rank rule – taking on the first client who comes their way.
Yet Garden Court’s lawyers seem bound by a shared instinct: to champion the most left-wing causes imaginable, whether it be Palestinian terrorists or Extinction Rebellion. And while there is no question that Garden Court’s barristers are gifted advocates and politically engaged, their repeated alignment with left-wing causes chips away at the principle that barristers – like taxi drivers – should not be judged by their clients. Is it the case that these lawyers are actually undermining public support for the rule of law?
– Michael Gove, editor