A group of around 90 QCs have united to publicly criticise proposals to limit legal aid for judicial review, claiming that such a move would "seriously undermine the rule of law".

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, signed by silks including former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith QC, the former director of Public Prosecutions Lord Macdonald QC and Cherie Booth QC, the group argue that legal aid cuts and the associated reforms of judicial review will undermine Britain's global reputation for justice.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling announced last month that applications for judicial review – the process by which judges are asked to examine the legality of government decisions – will only receive legal aid funding once a judge has agreed the case is strong enough to proceed to a full hearing.

The QCs are concerned that the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 already severely limits legal aid for judicial review.

According to the letter, these plans will go further by refusing any legal aid to those who do not meet a residence test; refusing to pay lawyers in some cases for work reasonably and necessarily carried out; removing legal aid for complaints of mistreatment in prison; preventing small specialist public law firms from offering prison law advice; removing funding for test cases and cutting rates for legal advice and representation.

The letter says: "The cumulative effect of these proposals will seriously undermine the rule of law, and Britain's global reputation for justice. They are likely to drive conscientious and dedicated specialist public law practitioners and firms out of business.

"They will leave many of society's most vulnerable people without access to any specialist legal advice and representation. In practice, these changes will immunise Government and other public authorities from effective legal challenge."

The barristers have urged the government to withdraw the proposals, describing them as "unjust".

When the proposals for reform of the judicial review system were first communicated in November last year, Grayling said the number of applications received had risen from 160 in 1975 to 11,200 in 2011, with only one in six applications granted permission to be heard in 2011.