en

Access to the Supreme Court – the English Approach

2019, 81, No. 1

University College London


Publication date

24.10.2019

Publishing model

open access

License type


Field

Law

Discipline

law

Language of publication

English

Downloads

PDF 449 KB

Article

Number of views:143

Number of downloads:49

Crossref citations:0

Altmetric score:0


Abstract

The United Kingdom Supreme Court (UKSC) is a relatively new supreme court, as it started to sit as recently as 2009. It is the statutory successor to the House of Lords’ judicial powers. The text sets out the following issues: the court’s jurisdiction, standing, permission to appeal requirements, substantive nature of appeals, tied decisions and reopening of appeals. Next, the author proceeds to examine the nature of the remedies avaible to it, and any restrictions that apply to them. The text demonstrates the UKSC’s wide-ranging appellate jurisdiction, which enables it to exercise the full range of powers of the courts from which appeals are made it. However, in the majority of cases, access to the UKSC is limited due to the Court’s focus on legal questions of general public importance. As a result of it, the UKSC deals with a small number of cases on an annual basis. Although the Court is not supposed to carry out a judicial review of legislative action, the author hints at a nascent movement towards establishing a US-style power to strike down legislation.

Keywords:

Bibliography

Andrews N., The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and English Judgments, “Legal Studies Research Paper Series” 2014, No. 23

Dicey A. V., An Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution, 10th edition, Macmillan 1959

Goldsworthy J., Parliamentary Sovereignty, Cambridge 2010

Hale B., The Supreme Court in the UK Constitution, 12 October 2012 (Legal Wales lecture)

Irvine D., Human Rights, Constitutional Law and the Development of the English Legal System, Oxford 2003

Judge I., Constitutional Change: Unfinished Business, 4 December 2013, University College, London, at [34], “Our judiciary cannot set aside the law enacted by Parliament, nor suspend it nor dispense with it. To do so would contravene the Bill of Rights”, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/constitution-unit-news/constitution-unit/research/judicial-independence/lordjudgelecture041213/

Kavanagh A., Constitutional Review under the UK Human Rights Act, CUP 2009

Neuberger D., No Judgment – No Justice, 20 November 2012, http://www.bailii.org/bailii/lecture/01.html

Neuberger D., The Supreme Court: Is the House of Lords “losing part of itself”, 2 December 2009, at [19], http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Speeches/mr-supreme-court-lecture-dec-2009.pdf

Neuberger D., Who are the Masters now? (Lord Alexander lecture, 6 April 2011)

Zuckerman A., Zuckerman on Civil Procedure: Principles of Practice, Sweet & Maxwell 2013

Similar publications