CHAIRMAN'S INTRODUCTION
It is appropriate that, in presenting this 20th Annual Report of JUSTICE, I should record some paragraphs from our first Annual Report which recount the origins of our Society.
"This first Annual Report of JUSTICE Covers a period of nearly eighteen months, for it was in December, 1956, that, on the initiative of Mr. Peter Benenson, lawyers from the three main political parties formed an ad hoc alliance to endeavour to secure fair trials for those accused of treason in Hungary and South Africa, and took JUSTICE as their title.
"The International Commission of Jurists in the Hague was found to be working on the same tasks, and cooperation was soon established between the two bodies. The Commission, which is an independent association of lawyers dedicated to upholding the Rule of Law, was anxious to form a British Section. There was also a desire among the sponsors of JUSTICE that there should be a permanent all-party organisation concerned with the proper administration of justice in British territories.
"On 16th January, 1957, Mr. Norman Marsh, the Secretary- General of the Commission, met representatives of the Inns of Court Conservative and Unionist Society, the Society of Labour Lawyers, and the Association of Liberal Lawyers. These societies each agreed to suggest three of their members for inclusion in the Council of a permanent organisation, which was completed, after further consultations, by the Commission issuing invitations to a number of solicitors and professors of law. The Rt. Hon. Sir Hartley Shawcross, Q.C., the British Member of the Commission, was invited to be Chairman.
"The Council was formally completed and the Constitution approved on 4th June, 1957, and it was decided to retain the original name of JUSTICE. Mr. Tom Sargant, who had given voluntary help to the Society in its early stages, was appointed part-time Secretary. As the Council had no funds, the Commission offered it an initial loan and generously undertook to print and circulate a membership appeal to British lawyers with its own literature.'
Lord Shawcross, as he later became, was our Chairman for fifteen years and Lord Gardiner for three years. They both played vital parts in the launching of JUSTICE and the enhancement of its authority. Of the original members of the Council, Lord Gardiner, Prof. C. J. Hamson, Michael Bryceson and I are still in harness. Many of those who have served in the intervening years have been appointed to high judicial and ministerial office.
The body of the report shows that in its early years JUSTICE was actively involved in supporting the work of the International Commission of Jurists and in dealing with problems of human rights in the then colonial territories. Mention is made of intervention in Cyprus, the
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