It has been announced that the President of the King’s Bench Division has appointed Mrs Justice Steyn DBE and Mrs Justice Collins Rice DBE as the Judges Jointly in Charge of the Media and Communications (MAC) List. This is a three year appointment that runs from 22 December 2023 to 21 December 2026.
MAC List was established as from 1 March 2017 and Mr Justice Warby was appointed as the judge in charge. As from 1 October 2019 it became a specialist list and a new CPR 53, Practice Directions and a Pre-Action Protocol were issued. From 3 February 2021 to 21 December 2023 the judge in Charge of the MAC List has been Mr Justice Nicklin who has been appointed as one of the presiding judges in Wales, as from 1 January 2024.
In 2023, a total of 210 cases were issued in the MAC List. Of these 107 (51%) were defamation claims, 22 (11%) were data protection claims and 17 (8%) were privacy claims and 11 (5%) were harassment claims. The remainder covered matters such as applications for statements in open court and Norwich Pharmacal orders.
In relation to the two newly appointed judges:
- Karen Steyn was born in South Africa and brought up in Kent, where she attended local state schools before studying history at the University of Liverpool and taking the Graduate Diploma in Law at City University. Called to the Bar in 1995, her practice covered a range of public law, human rights, public international and information law. She is known for her work in the contexts of armed conflict, national security, human rights and freedom of information. She has appeared at the Supreme Court in a number of significant cases including representing Liberty in DSD v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, which imposed an operational duty on the police force to conduct a proper investigation into allegations of ill treatment. Karen was appointed a High Court Judge (Queen’s Bench Division) in 2019, having served as a Deputy High Court Judge since 2016
- Rowena Collins Rice spent many years in central government, including as a government lawyer. Educated at a girls’ school in Glasgow, Rowena studied and taught law at Oxford University before joining the civil service fast stream in 1985. Having gained policy, legislation and private office experience in the Home Office, Rowena applied for the Government Legal Service’s legal trainee scheme, qualifying as a solicitor in 1995 and becoming the first lawyer in her family. Following a number of legal advisory roles in the Home Office and the former Department for Constitutional Affairs, she was appointed a Legal Director at HM Revenue & Customs in 2005 and became Legal Adviser to the Ministry of Justice in 2007, before joining the Ministry’s Executive Board the following year as Director-General (Democracy, Constitution and Law) and Chief Legal Officer. In 2010 she became Director-General, Constitution to the then Deputy Prime Minister, and in 2011 she was appointed Secretary to the Leveson Inquiry (into the culture, practices and ethics of the press). She was Director-General of the Attorney General’s Office and Legal Secretary to the Law Officers from 2013 until moving to the full-time judiciary in 2020. She was appointed a Deputy High Court Judge in 2017, and a High Court Judge in 2020.
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