Since its foundation JUSTICE has played a significant role in changing legal procedure and practice. Here are just some of our achievements:
1957 JUSTICE formed in London.
1958 JUSTICE becomes the British section of the International Commission of Jurists. We continue to assist in the ICJ’s work to ensure the rule of law in many countries.
1961 JUSTICE publishes The Citizen and the Administration: The Redress of Grievances.
1964 The Criminal Injuries Compensation Board is set up – partly in response to JUSTICE’s 1962 report Compensation for Victims of Crimes of Violence.
1967 The first Ombudsman is appointed. In the early 1960s JUSTICE was amongst the first to call for the establishment of Ombudsmen in central and local government.
1970 JUSTICE publishes The Prosecution Process in England and Wales.
1971 JUSTICE publishes Litigants In Person and Administration Under Law.
1972 JUSTICE publishes The Judiciary.
1975 The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act comes into effect. The Act was based upon the recommendations of JUSTICE’s 1972 report Living it Down.
1976 JUSTICE publishes The Citizen and The Public Agencies: Remedying Grievances.
1977 JUSTICE publishes Our Fettered Ombudsman.
1978 JUSTICE publishes CLAF, Proposals for a Contingency Legal Aid Fund.
1984 The first Data Protection Act becomes law. JUSTICE first pressed for data protection controls in its 1970 report Privacy and the Law.
1984 JUSTICE publishes Fraud Trials.
1991 JUSTICE publishes Science and the Administration of Justice.
1992 JUSTICE calls for an independent judicial appointments commission in our report The Judiciary in England and Wales. Our demands came to fruition in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
1997 The Criminal Cases Review Commission is set up, over 30 years after JUSTICE first called for an independent body to review alleged miscarriage of justice cases.
2000 The Human Rights Act 1998 comes fully into force. JUSTICE’s then Director, Anne Owers, was a member of the government’s task force, and we were at the forefront of training for practitioners and public bodies.
2005 The Freedom of Information Act 2000 comes into force. For more than 25 years, JUSTICE had been urging greater rights to access to information held by public bodies, publishing a report, Freedom of Information, in 1978.
2006 The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 comes into force, and with it three reforms long advocated by JUSTICE: the creation of a Supreme Court; a more transparent process for appointing judges; and the overhaul of the traditional role of the Lord Chancellor.
2009 JUSTICE publishes influential report on use of secret evidence.
2009 JUSTICE became the first NGO to intervene in a case before the UK Supreme Court in the case of HM Treasury v Ahmed.
2010 JUSTICE’s work on the constitutional disadvantages of reform or repeal of the Human Rights Act is instrumental in safeguarding the Act after the general election in May.
2010 Victory in Cadder in UK Supreme Court means criminal suspects in Scotland have right to legal representation in police stations.
2012 JUSTICE Scotland launched.
2017 JUSTICE celebrates 60 years at the forefront of reimagining the justice system in the UK.
2017 Administrative Justice Council formed and hosted by JUSTICE.
2020 Following the suspension of all new trials due to the Covid-19 pandemic, JUSTICE led a series of mock virtual trials.
2023 JUSTICE launches landmark report assessing threats to the rule of law.