Khawar Qureshi QC examines the challenges ahead for the UK Supreme Court
Amid the plethora of legislation over the past decade, we have witnessed significant constitutional changes such as devolution, the enactment of the Human Rights Act 1998 and limitations to the age-old role of the lord chancellor vis-à-vis the judiciary.
It has been argued that many of these changes failed to achieve any procedural or substantive coherence, as some were undertaken without prior consultation or otherwise lacked consensus (see “Changing an age-old relationship” 156 NLJ 7244, pp 1548–49 and 156 NLJ 7245, pp 1586–87).
On 3 July 2007, Gordon Brown signalled a further programme of constitutional reform, ostensibly based upon rebuilding national consensus and institutional trust (see The Governance of Britain Cm 7170, and also the excellent paper Towards a New Constitutional Settlement by Robert Hazell, June 2007).
However, an example of a “reform” which is now under way is the creation of the UK Supreme Court pursuant to the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (CRA 2005), Pt 3.
According to recent ministerial statements,
