New Supreme Court Justice

Sir John Dyson has just been appointed as the twelfth Supreme Court Justice. The UK Supreme Court blog has a brief profile of him here. For students, he makes an interesting case study - does this Grammar school boy conform to the judicial stereotype of old, white, Oxbridge males?

Appointments to the Supreme Court are made under s8 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. Another important feature of the Act to note it that it imposes, under section 3, a duty on government to uphold the independence of the judiciary.

Appointments to the Supreme Court are made by a committee composed of the President and Deputy President of the Supreme Court and members of the appointment bodies for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This reflects reforms to the judical appointments process exemplified by the Judicial Appointments Commission in England and Wales, designed to make the process more transparent and accountable, by placing the task of selecting judges in the hands of independent commissioners as opposed to the Lord Chancellor.

A lot to contemplate here for teachers and students alike around separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.

Quality problems for the judiciary? [8 Dec 2011]
Rainy Sky v Kookmin Bank [7 Dec 2011]
The Supreme Court - VIDEO [26 Oct 2011]
Must-read! [11 Oct 2011]
Judges reading the Riot Act [19 Aug 2011]
Poor set to suffer most from legal aid cuts [28 Jun 2011]
Supreme Court to rule on meaning of miscarriage of justice [9 May 2011]
Supreme Court video clips [6 Apr 2011]
The end of immunity for expert witnesses [4 Apr 2011]
Judicial Diversity and the Supreme Court [30 Mar 2011]
Judicial Review and abuse of power [11 Feb 2011]
Cuts and judicial independence [9 Feb 2011]
Judicial Review [25 Jan 2011]
Oceanbulk Shipping v TMT Asia [2010] UKSC 44 [16 Nov 2010]
We want pre-nup! [20 Oct 2010]
North Sea Oil and Judicial Review [5 Oct 2010]
Will the Supreme Court survive the cuts? [24 Sep 2010]
Legal Heroes [18 Aug 2010]
Judicial diversity [5 Jul 2010]
Al Rawi and Others v Security Service and Others [7 May 2010]
A single opinion? [7 May 2010]
Separation, schmeparation??? [10 Feb 2010]
Separation of Powers [6 Feb 2010]
A Primary Example of Bad Legislation [3 Feb 2010]