1957–2000

Justice was founded in 1957, following the visit of a group of British lawyers to observe the treason trials of members of the African National Congress (ANC) in apartheid South Africa and the show-trials in communist Hungary. Its first chairman was Hartley Shawcross, the chief British prosecutor at Nuremberg.^[5] Other founding members included Sir John Galway Foster QC,^[6] and Peter Benenson who later established Amnesty International.^[7] Indeed, when AI first started in 1961, it shared its offices with JUSTICE.

In 1958, it became the British section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). The original terms of Justice's constitution committed it "to uphold and strengthen the principles of the Rule of Law in the territories for which the British Parliament is directly or ultimately responsible: in particular, to assist in the administration of justice and in the preservation of the fundamental liberties of the individual". Indeed, JUSTICE itself gave rise to a number of subordinate branches in what were then still British colonies and dependent territories. As each of these countries moved towards independence in the 1960s, the branches reconstituted themselves as national sections of the ICJ. This, in turn, shifted the emphasis of Justice's own work towards the UK itself.

Thus, although founded with an international orientation, Justice quickly established a specific focus on the rule of law and protection of fundamental rights in the UK. Through the work of its first secretary, Tom Sargant OBE, Justice rapidly developed expertise in cases involving miscarriages of justice, and secured the release of many prisoners who had been wrongly imprisoned. Sargant was instrumental in the establishment of the BBC series Rough Justice, which led to the release from prison of eighteen victims of miscarriages of justice.

At the same time Justice developed as a policy organisation, producing reports that helped establish the UK's ombudsman system, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, the Data Protection Act 1998, and the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Similarly, many of the measures contained in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 were previously put forward by JUSTICE. Through the 1990s it established and developed programmes on human rights legislation, criminal justice, asylum and immigration, discrimination and privacy. It campaigned for the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law by way of the Human Rights Act 1998.

2000 – present

In October 2009, it became the first NGO to intervene in a case before the UK Supreme Court in the case of HM Treasury v Ahmed.^[8]

Following Justice's intervention in Cadder v HM Advocate,^[9] JUSTICE Scotland was launched in July 2012.^[10][11] The first JUSTICE Scotland working party report, looking at legal assistance in police stations, was published in July 2018.^[12]

Following the suspension of all new trials due to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, Justice led a series of mock virtual trials to examine viability and safety.^[13]

Leadership

Previous directors of Justice include Dame Anne Owers CBE, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, Leah Levin OBE, a founder and trustee of Redress,^[14] and Andrea Coomber QC (Hon), chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform.^[15] Previous chairs of Justice include Lord Alexander of Weedon QC, Lord Goodhart QC, Paul Seighart,^[16] and the former Law Lord, Lord Steyn.