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15 February 2013 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7548 / Categories: Opinion , Human rights
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Courting controversy

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Roger Smith considers courts & constitutions

Someone in the UK Supreme Court has a talent for communication. To the court’s existing Twitter feed and live streaming of hearings, we now have the promise of a regular presence on YouTube. The court has committed itself to five minute summaries of its court judgments. These are written and delivered by one of the justices and have been given, but not regularly broadcast, since the court was established in 2009. The summaries are designed to pick out the key facts and findings without the legal analysis present either in the judgment itself or the written press summaries.

The YouTube performances are hardly dramatic but they are rather good in providing accessible versions of the judgments. They underline how the court has gone beyond its predecessor, the appellate committee of the House of Lords. In a recent speech, Lord Carnwath reflected: “I believe there has been a profound change…over time [the Supreme Court] has brought a new sense of collective identity.” He quoted earlier words of Lord Hope: “The most

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