ABSTRACT
This chapter however, looks at the less traditional avenues and opportunities for redress: inquiries and ombudsmen, as well as the development of the system of tribunals that more directly support the work of the courts. The separation of powers, as a legal and political doctrine, is the traditional means of explaining the role of the courts in the UK constitution. Under this principle, the courts are not only a place for people to seek legal redress in the event of legal disputes. The argument that people should explicitly recognise that the senior judiciary are politically opinionated, and even politically motivated, in their work in determining important cases in the senior courts is known as legal realism. Legal realism is not an idea which sits comfortably with a constitution built around an aspiration to a working separation of powers. Ministers have the power to order an inquiry under section 1 of the Inquiries Act 2005 on the basis of 'public concern'.
