The Challenges of Democracy and the Rule of Law (Profile Books, London, 2025) is a series of recent articles, lectures and speeches given by Jonathan Sumption on a variety of political and legal issues captured by the book’s title. Included are edited transcriptions of two speeches on the rule of law and freedom of speech he delivered to the Legal Research Foundation and the Free Speech Union during his late 2023 tour of New Zealand.
In his introduction to the book, Lord Sumption (I shall take as read the honorific hereafter) says he is addressing the questions “what are the conditions in which democracy can exist?” and “what part does law play in creating those conditions—or perhaps in extinguishing them?”
One of Sumption’s 2019 Reith Lectures was titled In Praise of Politics. The title represents one of his main themes: that politics is the essential mechanism for the good government of democratic states.
He argues that political representation disperses power, inhibits its arbitrary exercise and encourages consultative decision-making. However, he also recognises the limits of politics, particularly when confronting major modern challenges that cross national boundaries, such as sluggish economies, arms control and climate change.
Unlock this article and all PREMIUM content by subscribing to LawNews
Already a subscriber?
Upon the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833, the UK government compensated slave owners with £20 million, a sum equivalent to 40% of the Treasury’s annual income at the time. There was never any payment towards the actual slaves.. So, there need be no “collective guilt” towards tbe deprived slave owners, at least !