a manner not intended by Parliament. During these times some members of the judiciary believed that the law of God or nature superseded any act of Parliament, but this view has been disregarded in recent years, 'In earlier times, many learned lawyers seem to have believed that an Act of Parliament could be disregarded in so far as it was contrary to the law of God or the law of nature or natural justice but since the supremacy of Parliament was finally demonstrated by the revolution of 1688 any such idea has become obsolete' (Reid, 1974). Overall the consensus seems to be that the judiciary should only be concerned with applying the law, not making it. 'A judges role is to interpret the law, not to make new ones' (Oliver, 2003).
             It is important for the judiciary to be independent of political interference, and there are a number of conventions in place to ensure that this happens. The first is that judicial salaries are fixed and relatively high to ensure that they are less open to corruption, and paid from the governments Consolidated Fund. Judges salaries are fixed so that the executive is unable to threaten to reduce them, importantly, and unlike most other public positions, judicial salaries do not come up for annual review. Independence is maintained through the system of judicial appointments, senior judges are appointed by the Crown on the advice of the Prime Minister usually because they have become leading barristers and merit the position. In the past it was not uncommon for former Members of Parliament to be rewarded for their service with a judicial role, this practice compromised judicial independence and has died out. Judges are appointed for life, this means that even though the judges appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister they are able to maintain independence as they will hold office for longer than the lifetime of the government. A judge's tenure is subject to 'goo...