AN ENDURING LIBERAL INSTITUTION: HOW NEOLIBERAL VICTIM-CENTRIC REFORMS STRENGTHEN THE LIBERAL CONCEPTION OF THE LEGITIMACY OF THE CRIMINAL TRIAL

'For too long victims have felt they are treated as an afterthought in the criminal justice system. This must change... I am absolutely determined that victims are given back their voice ...' (Damian Green MP, Minister for Victims).

This thesis considers the impact on the legitimacy of the trial of a raft of recent, victim-centric reforms to the English criminal trial process. For some time the conception of the English criminal trial has been as a settled, liberal institution, in the tradition of an adversarial conflict between the state and the defendant. The focus of the proceedings has been on the defendant, and other than usually being the trigger for an investigation, the status of the victim in the trial process has been no different to that of any other witness. The legitimation of the process has rested on the liberal justification of the deprivation of the liberty of the accused only following conviction in a fair system of trial.

Over the past two or more decades there has been a marked, accelerating turn towards the role of the victim in proceedings, both internationally and domestically. It is the contention of this thesis that the host of victim-centric reforms, preoccupied with giving the victim a voice in the English criminal trial, demonstrate "neoliberal" logics of governance according to market-metrics with increased efficiencies and engagement with users of the system, responsibilisation of the victim in the trial process, individualisation and personalisation of the proceedings and enforcing a zero-tolerance to the risks posed by criminals.

The contention of this thesis is that the neoliberal, victim-centric reforms to the English criminal trial paradoxically serve to strengthen the liberal conception of the criminal trial. Such a liberal conception traditionally champions both the participation of the defendant being called to account and due process to protect the defendant against the oppressive exercise of state power. Enhanced perceptions of procedural fairness to victims in the trial process and the expansion of the audience by opening a dialogue between the victim and those in power at points of the trial process that were previously remote to the victim, in no way diminishes the liberal conception but in fact characterises the legitimation of an enduring liberal trial institution.