One of the more interesting books that I have read recently has been “Saving Capitalism” by Robert Reich, for the British edition of which, some wag has added a subtitle “For the Many, not the Few.” In his book Mr Reich explains how there is no such thing as a free market, pointing out that markets do not exist in a state of nature: they consist of artificial structures of rules which are framed by human beings and as they are rules they are capable of being manipulated, for sectional advantage by those groups in society who have the power to make the rules. As he notes in his introduction:
…markets depend for their very existence on rules governing property (what can be owned), monopoly (what degree of market power is permissible), contracts (what can be exchanged and under what terms), bankruptcy (what happens when purchasers can’t pay up) and how all of this is enforced.
A little later in his book he explains:
The expanding freedom of corporations to do what they want may theoretically enlarge the economic pie for everyone. But in recent years the major consequence of such freedom has been to give bigger slices to the top executives of large corporations and Wall Street banks, and their shareholders, and smaller slices to almost everybody else. Another consequence has been to reduce the freedoms of ordinary working people in the workplace. The supposed freedom of contract is a cruel joke to workers who have no alternatives but to agree terms mandating arbitration of all grievances before an arbiter chosen by the company, thereby forcing employees to give up their constitutional right to a trial.
When the Coalition government took office, as part of its red tape challenge to reduce the “burdens” on business it initially proposed the abolition of such pointless measures as the Equality Act 2010 ( a summary of the debate can be found here: http://www.edf.org.uk/government-red-tape-challenge/) and then when the political storm broke a much smaller package of measures: you can read about them here: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/equalities-red-tape-challenge-and-reform-of-the-equality-and-human-rights-commission-outcome.
The political cost of outright abolition of a tranche of rules seen as a “burden” on business, was too high to be feasible, but much the same result could be achieved by “hollowing out” the practicality and efficacy of laws which remain on the statute book for a much reduced political cost.
Thus reducing the budgets of agencies charged with enforcing the law so they are less effective, creating complex procedural hurdles to bringing legal action and increasing the cost of access to justice beyond the means of those who would like to access it, are all useful tools for a government to employ which will achieve much to reduce the value of rights without outright abolition.
Such machinations may lie behind the otherwise inexplicable imposition of Employment Tribunal fees, which effectively removed a swathe of remedies from lowly paid workers and led to the number of employment claims being brought falling off the edge of a cliff.
It also prompted what may well prove to be one of the most significant decisions on what access to justice really means and the re-establishment of a common law right to access to justice in the jurisprudence of this country: the case of R (on the application of UNISON) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51.
In the case the Supreme Court found that high levels of tribunal fees were unconstitutional and breached a common law right to access to justice. It is worth considering the analysis of Lord Reed in the Supreme Court in some detail. In a sense, this was a case which on the authorities the government should always have been going to lose, given the line of authority which underpinned the principal ground for quashing the delegated legislation implementing the fees scheme. But the government had a surprising degree of success in the Court of Appeal:
65. In determining the extent of the power conferred on the Lord Chancellor by section 42(1) of the 2007 Act, the court must consider not only the text of that provision, but also the constitutional principles which underlie the text, and the principles of statutory interpretation which give effect to those principles. In that regard, there are two principles which are of particular importance in this case. One is the constitutional right of access to justice: that is to say, access to the courts (and tribunals: R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex p Saleem [2001] 1 WLR 443). The other is the rule that “specific statutory rights are not to be cut down by subordinate legislation passed under the vires of a different Act” (R v Secretary of State for Social Security, Ex p Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants [1997] 1 WLR 275, 290 per Simon Brown LJ). In the context of the present case, there is a considerable degree of overlap between these two principles. For the sake of clarity, however, each of these principles will be considered in turn.
He then analysed the principles with care and provided an exegesis of how they had been formulated:
66. The constitutional right of access to the courts is inherent in the rule of law. The importance of the rule of law is not always understood. Indications of a lack of understanding include the assumption that the administration of justice is merely a public service like any other, that courts and tribunals are providers of services to the “users” who appear before them, and that the provision of those services is of value only to the users themselves and to those who are remunerated for their participation in the proceedings. The extent to which that viewpoint has gained currency in recent times is apparent from the consultation papers and reports discussed earlier. It is epitomised in the assumption that the consumption of ET and EAT services without full cost recovery results in a loss to society, since “ET and EAT use does not lead to gains to society that exceed the sum of the gains to consumers and producers of these services”.
67. It may be helpful to begin by explaining briefly the importance of the rule of law, and the role of access to the courts in maintaining the rule of law. It may also be helpful to explain why the idea that bringing a claim before a court or a tribunal is a purely private activity, and the related idea that such claims provide no broader social benefit, are demonstrably untenable.
68. At the heart of the concept of the rule of law is the idea that society is governed by law. Parliament exists primarily in order to make laws for society in this country. Democratic procedures exist primarily in order to ensure that the Parliament which makes those laws includes Members of Parliament who are chosen by the people of this country and are accountable to them. Courts exist in order to ensure that the laws made by Parliament, and the common law created by the courts themselves, are applied and enforced. That role includes ensuring that the executive branch of government carries out its functions in accordance with the law. In order for the courts to perform that role, people must in principle have unimpeded access to them. Without such access, laws are liable to become a dead letter, the work done by Parliament may be rendered nugatory, and the democratic election of Members of Parliament may become a meaningless charade. That is why the courts do not merely provide a public service like any other.
69. Access to the courts is not, therefore, of value only to the particular individuals involved. That is most obviously true of cases which establish principles of general importance. When, for example, Mrs Donoghue won her appeal to the House of Lords (Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562), the decision established that producers of consumer goods are under a duty to take care for the health and safety of the consumers of those goods: one of the most important developments in the law of this country in the 20th century. To say that it was of no value to anyone other than Mrs Donoghue and the lawyers and judges involved in the case would be absurd. The same is true of cases before ETs. For example, the case of Dumfries and Galloway Council v North [2013] UKSC 45; [2013] ICR 993, concerned with the comparability for equal pay purposes of classroom assistants and nursery nurses with male manual workers such as road workers and refuse collectors, had implications well beyond the particular claimants and the respondent local authority. The case also illustrates the fact that it is not always desirable that claims should be settled: it resolved a point of genuine uncertainty as to the interpretation of the legislation governing equal pay, which was of general importance, and on which an authoritative ruling was required.
70. Every day in the courts and tribunals of this country, the names of people who brought cases in the past live on as shorthand for the legal rules and principles which their cases established. Their cases form the basis of the advice given to those whose cases are now before the courts, or who need to be advised as to the basis on which their claim might fairly be settled, or who need to be advised that their case is hopeless. The written case lodged on behalf of the Lord Chancellor in this appeal itself cites over 60 cases, each of which bears the name of the individual involved, and each of which is relied on as establishing a legal proposition. The Lord Chancellor’s own use of these materials refutes the idea that taxpayers derive no benefit from the cases brought by other people.
71. But the value to society of the right of access to the courts is not confined to cases in which the courts decide questions of general importance. People and businesses need to know, on the one hand, that they will be able to enforce their rights if they have to do so, and, on the other hand, that if they fail to meet their obligations, there is likely to be a remedy against them. It is that knowledge which underpins everyday economic and social relations. That is so, notwithstanding that judicial enforcement of the law is not usually necessary, and notwithstanding that the resolution of disputes by other methods is often desirable.
72. When Parliament passes laws creating employment rights, for example, it does so not merely in order to confer benefits on individual employees, but because it has decided that it is in the public interest that those rights should be given effect. It does not envisage that every case of a breach of those rights will result in a claim before an ET. But the possibility of claims being brought by employees whose rights are infringed must exist, if employment relationships are to be based on respect for those rights. Equally, although it is often desirable that claims arising out of alleged breaches of employment rights should be resolved by negotiation or mediation, those procedures can only work fairly and properly if they are backed up by the knowledge on both sides that a fair and just system of adjudication will be available if they fail. Otherwise, the party in the stronger bargaining position will always prevail. It is thus the claims which are brought before an ET which enable legislation to have the deterrent and other effects which Parliament intended, provide authoritative guidance as to its meaning and application, and underpin alternative methods of dispute resolution.
He then went on to conclude that the scheme of fees was unlawful because it posed a “real risk” of impeding the access to justice that was at the heart of the rule of law:
90. It is therefore necessary to consider, first, whether the Fees Order effectively prevents some persons from having access to justice. It is argued on behalf of the Lord Chancellor that the fees cannot be unlawful unless it is proved that they have prevented access to justice in specific cases. No-one, however, has given evidence in these proceedings that they were unable to bring a claim because they could not afford the fees. Further, it is argued, the poorest people qualify for full remission. Those who do not so qualify have some income over and above the minimum necessary to meet the essentials of life, and can therefore save the amount needed to pay the fees if they choose to do so. In exceptional cases, the Lord Chancellor can exercise his discretionary power to remit the fees. Access to justice is not prevented where the decision on whether to make a claim is the result of making a choice between paying the fee and spending one’s income in some other way.
91. In order for the fees to be lawful, they have to be set at a level that everyone can afford, taking into account the availability of full or partial remission. The evidence now before the court, considered realistically and as a whole, leads to the conclusion that that requirement is not met. In the first place, as the Review Report concludes, “it is clear that there has been a sharp, substantial and sustained fall in the volume of case receipts as a result of the introduction of fees”. While the Review Report fairly states that there is no conclusive evidence that the fees have prevented people from bringing claims, the court does not require conclusive evidence: as the Hillingdon case indicates, it is sufficient in this context if a real risk is demonstrated. The fall in the number of claims has in any event been so sharp, so substantial, and so sustained as to warrant the conclusion that a significant number of people who would otherwise have brought claims have found the fees to be unaffordable.
92. In that regard, it is necessary to bear in mind that the use which people make of ETs is governed more by circumstances than by choice. Every individual who is in employment may require to have resort to an ET, usually unexpectedly: for example, if they find themselves unfairly dismissed or the victim of discrimination. Persons whose employment rights have been breached, or who believe them to have been breached, are often under a practical compulsion to apply to an ET for redress. Conciliation can be a valuable alternative in some circumstances, but as explained earlier the ability to obtain a fair settlement is itself dependent on the possibility that, in the absence of such a settlement, a claim will be presented to the ET. It is the practical compulsion which many potential claimants are under, which makes the fall in the number of claims indicative of something more than a change in consumer behaviour.
The decision was quashed: the government has admitted defeat and is refunding the fees it unlawfully collected. I have not however seen details of a compensation scheme for those who had an otherwise worthwhile claim, which was stifled by the inability to pay the fee to issue it. That is a point which warrants further consideration.