The English justice system is hanging on to its reputation as the best in the world by its “fingernails” due to the government’s failure to provide adequate funding, one of the country’s most senior judges has warned.



In an interview with the Guardian, Lady Justice Hallett called for the entire criminal and civil justice system to be supported, saying a bias towards specialist commercial courts, which bring in lucrative, international business to London, could impact the quality of the entire system.



Her comments come as criminal barristers threaten mass walkouts over successive cuts to their fees. The Law Society has warned that defence solicitors in criminal cases are in danger of becoming “extinct” because the Ministry of Justice has progressively reduced payments to the profession.

Even the lord chief justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, complained this month about under-investment in court buildings “amounting to neglect”. The MoJ has endured deeper cuts than any other Whitehall department since 2010 and is having to find a further £600m in savings by 2020.



Hallett, who conducted the inquest into the 7/7 bombers, is vice-president of the criminal division of the court of appeal. She also chairs the judicial diversity committee of the judges’ council, which is responsible for finding ways to make the bench more representative of broader society.



“With respect to all those [in the Treasury] who have really difficult jobs working out finances, we have to look at the job the Ministry of Justice has to do,” Hallett said. “Are we confident in ensuring that it’s properly financed? Because if it’s not we risk breaching our duties under the rule of law.



“There’s a danger of underplaying the importance of justice. It’s going to become increasingly important with Brexit. We are always [stressing the] importance of providing access to justice for all our citizens.”



Commerical courts, such as the Rolls Building in London, and arbitration services “bring in billions, multibillions, into the country”, she said. “Some people may think that as long as we protect the commercial courts everything will be all right – but that’s nonsense.”



It was not sufficient merely to support parts of the system, because without judges and barristers gaining experience elsewhere, those commercial courts would not be able to flourish, she argued. “We have to make sure that the entire system is the best in the world,” Hallett said, “but we are hanging on by our fingernails.”



Comparisons suggesting that France spends less than England and Wales on legal aid were misleading, she said. “People compare funding of our system with France. They have a completely different system.



“We don’t have as many judges. In their system they don’t pay their lawyers as much but they have many more judges. You can’t just compare legal aid between the two countries. You have to look at the entire justice system.”

Criminal barristers are threatening mass walkouts over successive cuts to their fees. Photograph: Clara Molden/PA

Hallett, who was talking about her forthcoming role in a stage version of The Trial of Richard III, is also concerned that cuts to legal aid and the publicly-funded criminal justice system will set back the cause of improving diversity on the bench.

“One of the problems is that [many] BAME lawyers and women lawyers traditionally have gone into public-funded law [like criminal justice] and that’s where we are going to make the greatest improvements [in diversity] on the bench.



“And if there are problems recruiting and retaining good lawyers to the publicly funded law then that will not only impact on the litigants in justice, it will also go to impact recruitment to the bench. We already have problems retaining women.”

In terms of judicial diversity, Hallett said, she believed there would eventually be more judges of Asian backgrounds. “What really troubles me is Afro-Caribbean men particularly. I don’t know whether this is a societal problem or a problem in the profession.



“We are having ... BAME lawyers talk to them about how they think we can do things differently ... if we don’t have the pool of BAME lawyers to apply it’s going to be really tough.



“I have never come across overt discrimination in the judiciary of any kind. What we find is unconscious bias. With people who have career opportunities, or if they are on selection panels, there may be unconscious bias against … those not of the same background. You can train people to be alert to unconscious bias.”



A Daily Mail headline in 2016, which described high court judges in the Brexit case as “Enemies of the People”, for determining that MPs must have a say on triggering Article 50, had caused further demoralisation in the judiciary, she added.

“It had a huge impact [on judges] with the feeling about how they are treated,” Hallett said. “I don’t think it helped our recruitment crisis. We re in the middle of another selection round and I don’t think anyone is confident we are going to be filling the gaps.”