'Justice is open to everyone,' Judge Sturgess supposedly said, 'in the same way as the Ritz Hotel.' Although people in Hong Kong have the right to go to court to watch the proceedings, very few do so. Open justice, however, is a very good thing, and much more should be done to make the judicial process more understandable to the public at large.
When Queen Elizabeth unveiled her government's legislative programme to Parliament this month, she announced that the ban on broadcasting from the law courts in England and Wales would be relaxed. In particular, filming will be permitted of the opening and closing addresses of lawyers in the Court of Appeal, and of the delivery of judgments. After that, it is envisaged that the sentencing remarks of judges in the Crown Court will also be broadcast, although no witnesses, defendants or jurors will be filmed, as they might find this disconcerting.
Although some fear that the cameras could turn the courts into theatres, the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, has explained that 'we are bringing the concept of open justice into the modern age, and in doing so we will make the courts more accessible to the public than ever before.'
Camera access to courts has, from time to time, been tried in many jurisdictions, including Australia, Canada, France, Israel, New Zealand and Russia. In Norway, the live broadcasting of the murder trial of Anders Behring Breivik is providing viewers with a chilling insight into the case, and the cameras have not diminished the solemnity of the proceedings.
The debate over the filming of court cases has raged for years, with critics saying it could bring the legal system into disrepute. After the televised murder trial in Los Angeles of former NFL footballer O.J.Simpson, some felt that the grandstanding of the lawyers demeaned the proceedings, and that the cameras were not conducive to justice.
However, since 1991, America's Court TV (later renamed TruTV) has broadcast court cases every day, and most states now allow television coverage of trials.
In January, when the Illinois Supreme Court also permitted trials to be broadcast, the chief justice, Thomas Kilbride, hailed the move as 'another step to bring more transparency and more accountability to the Illinois court system'.
