You might have thought that judges could never have too much law. But that is apparently not the case.

Addressing the Lord Mayor’s annual dinner for the judiciary recently, Sir Igor Judge (pictured), the lord chief justice, made a heartfelt plea for less legislation. To make his point, he took as an example 2003, which saw six major pieces of legislation. There was, he rattled off, the Crime (International Co-operation) Act with 96 sections and 6 schedules containing 124 paragraphs, the Anti-Social Behaviour Act with 97 sections and 3 schedules containing 8 paragraphs, the Courts Act containing 112 sections and 10 schedules with 547 paragraphs, the Extradition Act with 227 sections and 4 schedules with 82 paragraphs, the Sexual Offences Act with 143 sections and 7 schedules with 338 paragraphs, and what he called ‘the Daddy of them all’ – the Criminal Justice Act, which had 339 sections and 38 schedules with a total of 1,169 paragraphs.

Sounds like there’s no shortage of bedtime reading at the bench. Judge added: ‘It seems to me that if every line of recent criminal justice legislation had been guaranteed by a payment to the Bank of England of £10,000 a line, the credit crisis would have been funded.’ Ouch.