... of magistrates to handle virtually any case to an acceptable standard of justice.3 Yet, the system produces a large number of dissatisfied defendants as well as a significant proportion of successful appeals. Consequently, many commentators have asserted that Crown Courts, despite all their imperfections, offer clear advantages to defendants in due process terms over trial by magistrates, which may suffer from case-hardening, lower levels of legal representation and more generally an impetus towards a crime control ethos. However, it has more often than not been contended that the quality that is produced in cases decided in courts depends largely on the judge's discretion. However, this has also been criticized that the judges have now become the lawmakers. It has for many years been our jurisprudential orthodoxy that, within certain limits, superior courts make law and do not simply declare and apply it. This assertion no doubt requires considerable qualification, but as Lord ...

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