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Supreme Court review

20 January 2011 / Oliver Gayner
Issue: 7449 / Categories: Features , Constitutional law
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Oliver Gayner reviews the work of the last three terms in the UK Supreme Court

The Supreme Court continues to process an impressively heavy workload. According to its end of year review published in August, in its first 12 months the court heard 67 appeals, handed down 62 judgments considered 206 applications for permission to appeal, and welcomed over 40,000 visitors through the door. Including the Michaelmas term recently ended, that is 85 appeals and 74 judgments in 14 months.

Two clear trends emerge from the decided cases. First, over a third of all cases have featured human rights issues. The “quasi-constitutional” nature of the court’s work is a point considered in more detail below. Second, appellants have a surprising high chance of success: in 43% of cases, the Court of Appeal was overturned.

Of the decided cases, there have been a number of headline grabbers: for example, Radmacher achieved almost the same column inches as JFS (the Jewish schools discrimination case) had in 2009. It is clear that the court is generally succeeding

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

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Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

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Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
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Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
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