An occupational hazard of journalism is pumping gallons of ink to write about things that never happen and probably never will. Liberalisation of the Indian legal services market is one example.
The Gazette carried a feature on this potentially lucrative prospect a few weeks before the new millennium. Twenty-five years and 11 months later, we’re still waiting. Though hardly with bated breath.
Devolution of justice to the Welsh government is another case in point. It is seven years since an august commission chaired by former lord chief justice Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd recommended that Wales should wrest full control of justice policy and funding from Westminster. But a report earlier this year by Dr Robert Jones, lecturer in the Welsh criminal justice system in Cardiff University’s School of Law and Politics, found that only three of the Thomas commission’s 78 recommendations have been acted upon. The Labour-led Welsh government had done ‘almost nothing to shift the dial on justice devolution to Wales’, grumbled Jones.
This is more surprising than it seems. Devolution was never going to happen under a Conservative government. But hopes rose during the tenure of former Welsh Labour counsel general Mick Antoniw that it was back on the table. As it turned out, Keir Starmer’s administration evinced no interest, despite Antoniw’s enthusiastic advocacy.
The ground has shifted in two key respects. Plaid Cymru is now in government in Cardiff; and a champion of devolution has supplanted Starmer at Number 10. So can we expect movement at last?
Elfyn Llwyd, appointed counsel general in May after Plaid’s victory in the Senedd election, certainly thinks so. ‘The door is open,’ Llwyd told the Legal Wales conference a week ago. The first minister of Wales and Andy Burnham have already had ‘several discussions’ about developing a separate jurisdiction, he revealed (see tinyurl.com/4bvhr4th).
Crucially, however, Llywd sought to reassure lawyers that devolution will not mean extra administrative burdens or result in cross-border practice curbs.
Plenty of lawyers in Wales doubtless vote Plaid, but very few want a Welsh Solicitors Regulation Authority or indeed a Law Society of Wales. Llywd’s pledge that ‘whatever side of the border you live on, you should continue to be able to practise on both sides with a single qualification’ is welcome news indeed.
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