Adversarialism goes West

Abstract

This article examines the approach of criminal courts in England and Wales to case management alongside the contradictory pressures placed upon the pre-trial role of the defence advocate, when advising on plea, which have led to the erosion of the adversary ideal. It focuses on the overarching procedural code that ‘governs’ the relationship between defence lawyers and the judiciary in the conduct of criminal cases (the Criminal Procedure Rules) and draws upon a recent important decision which extends the antipathy of the courts towards adversarial advocacy. The conclusion drawn is that traditional understandings of the adversarial advocate have expired together with the duty of defence lawyers to ‘promote fearlessly and by all proper and lawful means the client’s best interests’.