The Supreme Court

Who Are They?

  • 16% women

    • 50% general pop

  • 66% privately educated

    • 7% of general pop

  • 0% ethnic minority

    • 18% of general pop

This shows how unrepresentative of the general population the Supreme Court is. For example, Lady Hale was made the first female president of the Supreme court by Theresa May in 2017, and was the only female judge on the court.

Judicial Independence

Judges MUST be independent of control or persuasion by the legislature / executive

  • Ways it is maintained:

    • Public Openness

      • All judgements in the public domain

      • Full proceedings live streamed

      • Public able to personally view proceedings/visit courthouses

    • Transparency in Appointment

      • Judicial Appointments Committee (est 2005 Constitutional Reform Act)

      • Selects members of the supreme court based on good character and merit, as well as (if in a tie) increasing the diversity on the court.

      • BUT - the Lord Chancellor (appointed member of Cabinet by PM) has the right to accept or reject the JAC’s selection.

      • Replaces very dodgy system of ‘secret soundings’

    • Job + Salary security

      • 1701 Act of Settlement

        • Senior Judges can only be removed by a resolution that has passed HoC + HoL

        • No english judge has ever been removed this way

        • (This means that judges can interpret the law freely + hold the gov to account without fearing loss of office)

      • Senior Salaries Pay Review Body

        • Wages are NOT decided by parliament

        • Wages are high - £237,000 to prevent corruption

        • Wages are paid directly from the Consolidated Fund (rather than any budget)

          This removes the potential for financial incentives for corruption within the judiciary.

    • Sub-judice

      • Parliament cannot express an opinion on a case that is being heard

      • Maintains the separation of powers

      • Only a convention (could be broken by politicians )

Judicial Neutrality

  • (The principle that judges should not be influenced by their own personal private/political opinions)

    • Radmacher v Gratino

      • Ruled that prenups had to be respected even if the terms could be viewed as unfair

        (generally beneficial to men in the relationship)

      • Lady Hale said that if the court had had 8 female justices to 1 man, then the ruling would have been different, as a female perspective would have recognised that prenups have been used coerce women in relationships.

  • Ways Judicial Neutrality is maintained:

    • Justices may not join, be affiliated to or campaign for any political party

    • Justices are expected to(and used to as a lawyer) to apply the law neutrally.

      • An experienced White judge is expected to be completely fair to non-white claimants/defendants

    • May not hear cases that they have an interest in

      • Lord Hoffmann was connected with Amnesty International, ruining the Pinochet extradition case

        • Pinochet was given a second hearing

  • Hookway 2011 (ruled that bail could only be limited to 4 days) - 90,000 could have been released

  • Police (Detention and Bail) Act 2011 - the government acted within days to effectively overturn a supreme court decision limiting the time that criminals could be held on bail.