Lord Woolf has held the most senior judicial posts in both the criminal and civil justice systems.  He served as a law lord in the country’s highest court; as Master of the Rolls - the most senior civil judge in England and Wales - and then from 2000 for five years as Lord Chief Justice, the highest job in the judicial hierarchy.

In this episode, he talks about his time in office, which coincided with Tony Blair’s constitutional reforms, the biggest shake-up in relations between judges and the executive in recent years. He discusses the problems of prison overcrowding, sentencing and the attitude of ministers to the rule of law.  

The interview is conducted by Frances Gibb, the journalist and former legal editor of The Times, for a new landmark podcast series, The Judges: Power, Politics and the People, hosted by The University of Law.