By Mark Neale, Director General, Bar Standards Board
Part of the stock-in-trade of constitutional lawyers is the concept of checks and balances – those safeguards built into laws and constitutions to prevent undesirable concentrations of power.
Probably the most famous working out of this doctrine was in the Federalist Papers - a propaganda exercise mounted by Hamilton, Madison and Jay (aka the Founding Fathers) to promote the ratification of the US Constitution which was then undergoing approval by the States.
Checks and balances are not, however, relevant only to weighty constitutional documents like the US Constitution. They also apply in many spheres where decisions profoundly affect people’s lives.
Regulators, particularly regulators of professions, do exactly that. Through our enfo...
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