A great tradition of open justice

by Geoffrey Robertson QC  Please CIRCULATE

‘Justice must be seen to be done’ is a principle that Britain has contributed to the free world. It was first articulated in 1649 by ‘Freeborn John’ Lilburne, the Leveller, when Cromwell’s judges tried him for treason: they accepted his submission that ‘the first and fundamental liberty of an Englishman’ is that ‘no man whatsoever ought to be tried in holes and corners, or in any place where the gates are shut and barred’.