[JURIST] Britain's most senior judge concluded that UK courts are "seriously overstretched" in his first Review of the Administration of Justice in the Courts [PDF text], published Monday. Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers [BBC profile] expressed some frustration with the difficult position he said judges were being increasingly put in by Parliament setting detailed legislative mandates for the judicial process, especially in the criminal context:

Our criminal justice system has been put under pressure by legislation, some of which has reflected the politicization of sentencing. The task of judges and magistrates who have to sentence offenders has been made infinitely more complex by a stream of legislation. The judiciary is willing, if consulted, to advise on the practical implications for the administration of justice of proposed legislation.