Macfadyen Lecture to discuss judicial independence

A Texan judge will deliver this year's Macfadyen Lecture, on the topic of protecting judicial independence.

Chief Justice Nathan L Hecht of the Supreme Court of Texas will give the lecture, organised by the Scottish Council of Law Reporting in honour of the late Lord Macfadyen.

Chief Justice Hecht will consider the proposition that judicial independence is undemocratic, yet it is essential to democracy’s proper function. He will ask how judicial independence is to be protected from powerful political and popular pressures on judges to favour one course or another, when the judiciary has "neither force nor will, but merely judgment": do we really want our judges to be free of political pressure?

The lecture will be given on Tuesday 19 October at 6pm in the Signet Library, Parliament Square, Edinburgh. Click here to register to attend. Places are limited.