The 4th Annual Dave Ellis Memorial Lecture took place this week, with a talk on the theme of "Access to Justice" by Michael Mansfield QC.
Opening the lecture, Peter Ward SC, Chairperson of FLAC, outlined how throughout Michael Mansfield's career, he has acted in cases which challenge the political and legal establishments at their core. Peter Ward described how Michael Mansfield has "challenged assumptions about the role of law in society, and has challenged assumptions about equality of access to law and about how law is practised".
Michael Mansfield covered a variety of issues related to "Access to Justice" including the recession, free legal aid and budget cuts. Noting that when he began practising, legal aid had only just been introduced in the UK, Mansfield outlined:
"The welfare state was created in a situation where the national debt was far greater than it is now, where resources had been decimated by a war far greater than it has now. Yet in the ashes of that time, after everything that had happened, the community stood together and said that they wanted to put legal aid at the forefront. Even though it would cost them to do so, they could not afford not to do it, they could not afford not to construct a place where they were proud to live as opposed to a battleground of the marketplace."
Michael Mansfield explained that a neighbourhood law centre movement had been set up in the UK with funding from many different sources, including local authorities and central government. Those law centres had an ordinary shop front, just as community law centres here have today, where one can simply go in and have everyday legal problems dealt with.
Looking back over the past 42 years, Michael Mansfield referred to numerous test cases in which he was involved, commenting that peoples' lives had been "transformed" by the provision of legal representation.
Focussing on the adage "act local, think global", Michael Mansfield concluded that lawyers have an obligation to ensure human rights are respected.