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Supreme justice: 2019 in review

30 January 2020 / Brice Dickson
Issue: 7872 / Categories: Features
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Brice Dickson outlines the Supreme Court highlights for 2019
  • The court issued 60 decisions in 2019, compared to 67 in 2018 and an annual average of 68 since 2010.

During 2019 the UK Supreme Court gained a higher profile than at any time since its creation in 2019. This was mainly due to its decision in the prorogation case (R(Miller) v The Prime Minister ([2019] UKSC 41), where by 11 to 0 the court ruled that the prime minister, Boris Johnson, had supplied no justifiable reason for advising the Queen to exercise the prerogative power to prorogue Parliament for a period of nearly five weeks. Without doubt the decision marks the high-water mark in the court’s short history to date. It drew huge media attention to the role of the court and to the character of its formidable president, Lady Hale.

In October the court marked its tenth anniversary by having an open day. Among other events there was a talk by the court’s chief executive, Mike Ormerod, and the

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

Gilson Gray—Jeremy Davy

Gilson Gray—Jeremy Davy

Partner appointed as head of residential conveyancing for England

DR Solicitors—Paul Edels

DR Solicitors—Paul Edels

Specialist firm enhances corporate healthcare practice with partner appointment

NEWS
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
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
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
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
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