Page 8 - Judicial Diversity Update report

for the establishment of an internal judicial career path where judges can
begin their career in the more diverse Tribunals or District Judges.

• We stress the importance of leadership and culture in increasing diversity.
Any substantial and sustained improvement in the diversity of our judiciary
will require the judicial leadership to prioritise and commit to a cultural
change, whereby judicial diversity is seen as fundamental to the quality of
judging, rather than tangential.

• We question how merit is defined and assessed within the current system of
appointments and are concerned that it is too often used as an unconscious
proxy for the characteristics, qualities and experience of the current cohort
of judges. We welcome the JACs recent efforts to better understand and
define merit, however we call for continued efforts to tackle affinity bias and
urge further efforts to be made to ensure that the appointments process tests
for judicial potential and not prior advocacy experience.

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