26. February 2009

A New Court for the UK

In October a symbol of a new era of the separation of powers in Great Britain, the new Supreme Court, is going to be opened right in the centre of London.

On the first of October 2009, Great Britain finally will get a Supreme Court. As it stands at the moment, compared to other countries, the UK still has a lack of separation of powers. The basis for improvements in this area has been established with the Constitutional Reform Act from 2005. This fall, one of the most important part of the reform act is going to start its work. Located at Parliament Square in the centre of London, the new UK Supreme Court will be established right opposite its predecessor, the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords. Lisa Harker, of the Institute for Public Policy Research, stated her approval in the New Statesman: “It’s a further step towards the separation of powers in the UK, with the House of Lords no longer the highest court in the land.”

Mark Ryan, Senior Lecturer for Constitutional Law at Coventry University, agrees that the new Supreme Court “will align the British Constitution in accordance with a purer separation of powers”, but he thinks that this step is rather symbolic: “The reality is that today the Law Lords are already governed by a self-denying ordinance which severely restricts their activities in the second chamber.” A proof of this rather symbolic character of the new court can also be seen in the fact that the current Lords of Appeal are going to be the first judges of the Supreme Court. So at least for the commencement of the new court, it is only the building that is going to change, the faces will remain the same.

Compared to the US Supreme Court, the new UK Supreme Court in London, will not be quite as powerful. To Mark Ryan, this could be one possible disadvantage, as it might disappoint people, who expected more out of the reform. He clarifies: “The reality is that the UK Supreme Court will have the same powers as the current Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, albeit with the additional power to deal with devolution issues relating to the Scottish Parliament, and so on.”

This fact might be a reason for some people to argue about the necessity of the new Supreme Court, whose running costs are estimated at around seven million pound a year. It remains to be seen, whether the UK Supreme Court can fulfil its role to the satisfaction of the British and whether it even is able to gain more power over the years.