As part of a Government move to ensure that the highest court in
the country is completely independent from those who make the law
it created the Supreme Court, which will occupy its own new
building and be made up of 12 judges.
Until now the most senior court was made up of the Appellate
Committee of the House of Lords and the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council. The House of Lords and the Privy Council are parts
of Government, but The Supreme Court will not be connected to
Government at all.
The Court said that it would now be "explicitly separate from
both Government and Parliament".
Eleven of the 12 judges that form the Appellate Committee of the
House of Lords will become judges at the Supreme Court. One, Lord
Neuberger, is moving to the Court of Appeal, where he will be head
of its civil division.
Lord Neuberger has expressed reservations about the new
structure and has said that the very independence from Government
that is its founding principle might lead it to assume too much
power.
"The danger is that you muck around with a constitution like the
British constitution at your peril because you do not know what the
consequences of any change will be," he told BBC Radio 4 earlier
this month. "[There is a risk of] judges arrogating to themselves
greater power than they have at the moment."
Like the House of Lords, the Supreme Court will hear appeals
from the Court of Appeal in England and Wales and the Court of
Session in Scotland. It will be up to the Court of Appeal and the
Supreme Court to decide which cases it hears.
There will be no appeal available from the Supreme Court, though
if there is a question of interpretation of European Union law then
the Court must ask the opinion of the European Court of Justice
(ECJ).
The Court will be housed opposite the Houses of Parliament in
London in a building that used to be a criminal court.
The duties of the court will differ according to where cases
began. "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," according to the Court.
"The Supreme Court also decides devolution issues, that is
issues about whether the devolved executive and legislative
authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have acted or
propose to act within their powers or have failed to comply with
any other duty imposed on them," it said.
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