While judges in Ireland did what the Constitution invited and obliged them to do, the power of the English judiciary had and was increasing, the president of Trinity College, Oxford, has said. Delivering the John Kelly Memorial Lecture in UCD yesterday, Mr Michael Beloff, QC, said the Conservative government - and the rolling back of the frontiers of the State - was paradoxically responsible for more legislation of an intrusive and regulatory nature than any of its predecessors.
In his paper, "Towards a Supreme Court? The British Experience", Mr Beloff told the High Court judges and other members of the legal profession present that the more material there was for governmental interference, inevitably the more scope there was for error and therefore for judicial review.
Referring to Scottish devolution, Mr Beloff believed there had been inadequate consideration of the degree to which devolution would cede further power to the judges.
If power was devolved to Scotland, there would necessarily be boundary disputes, patrolled by the judiciary, and the question of what was within the remit of the Scottish assembly.
It would not merely be a question of an advance dispute between the executives north and south of the border.
The Scottish assembly might pass laws whose legality was subsequently challenged directly or indirectly, for example by way of defence to a criminal charge.
Mr Beloff warned that in Britain risks were run by the increasing involvement of judges in decisions of political impact, if not intent.
They might venture into areas outside their expertise, they might become unwittingly embroiled in controversy with appointed officers or elected representatives.
They might become judged by the same criteria as politicians.
It was not his case that the power of the English judiciary ought to be diminished, only that the phenomenon be recognised and the people be entitled to pronounce it good or not.
The late Mr John Kelly, in whose honour the lecture is held, was a Fine Gael TD, an Attorney General and professor of jurisprudence and Roman law at UCD.