A UK Supreme Court from today
1 October 2009 marks a defining moment in the constitutional history of the United Kingdom: transferring judicial authority away from the House of Lords, and creating a Supreme Court for the United Kingdom.The Supreme Court’s 12 Justices will maintain the highest standards set by the Appellate Committee, but will now be explicitly separate from both Government and Parliament.
The Court will hear appeals on arguable points of law of the greatest public importance, for the whole of the United Kingdom in civil cases, and for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in criminal cases
Occasionally, The Court will be called upon to interpret European law and the European Convention on Human Rights as they relate to our domestic laws.
If human rights principles seem to have been breached, it may be possible to appeal to the European Court after all avenues of appeal in the United Kingdom have been exhausted, or The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction in this particular case.
Learn more details about the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005.
Find out What You Need to Know
Labels: judiciary, separation of powers, UK
posted by Ken Wedding @ 3:57 PM
2 Comments:
Alan Carter wrote from Oxford:
"If it's of any use; I asked a friend of ours (she is a senior 'district' [circuit] court judge ) about the new Supreme Court. 1. There is still no written constitution, 2. the new Court is only 5 minutes walk from the House of Lords itself so it's easy to nip back there for lunch, 3. nearly 40% of their time may be spent on bizarre 'historical legacy' decisions from eg. tiny Carribean islands who are no longer British dependencies but still have the House of Lords ( sorry, Supreme Court) as the final court of appeal.
Perhaps the 'new' court may be a beacon for root & branch constitutional reform, but I for one am not counting on it..."
Alan Carter confirmed my suspicion that the judges on the new Supreme Court are pretty much the same people as the former Law Lords. (There's one new man.) They meet in a new building, within walking distance to Westminster, and they function outside of Parliament, but we'll have to see how much "separation of powers" there really is.
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