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A Supreme review & a constitutional revolution

29 July 2020 / Alec Samuels
Issue: 7897 / Categories: Features , In court , Constitutional law
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Alec Samuels details a decade of the UK Supreme Court

In brief

  • Independence and identity.
  • Constitutional, public law and human rights issues.
  • A separation of powers.

The creation of the UK Supreme Court a decade or so ago was a constitutional revolution. The judges left the House of Lords. They obtained their own building. They look to be a new institution. They are now called justices. They are no longer peers, but knighted, appointed to the Privy Council, and given the courtesy title of Lord or Lady. How is the institution working?

Independence

The Supreme Court has developed a strong sense of independence and identity, sitting in its own building in Parliament Square, virtually running its own affairs, managing its own budget, appointing the chief executive who determines the staffing, making its own rules, and controlling its own docket, about 70 cases a year. Modern technology is used to the full. The justices and counsel are unrobed. The proceedings are transparent, and televised, and oral and

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The proposed £11bn redress scheme following the Supreme Court’s motor finance rulings is analysed in this week’s NLJ by Fred Philpott of Gough Square Chambers
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
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James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
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