Judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

Last updated
Judge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
Style The Right Honourable
Lord or Lady
Appointer The Queen, on advice of the Prime Minister
Term length Justices are required to retire by 70 if they were appointed after 1995; may be removed on the address of both Houses of Parliament
Formation1 October 2009
Salary£226,193 [1]
Website http://www.supremecourt.uk/

The judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (occasionally, colloquially referred to as Law Lords ) include the President, the Deputy President, and Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. [2] The Supreme Court is the highest in the whole of the United Kingdom for civil matters, and for criminal matters from the United Kingdom jurisdictions of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. Judges are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister, who receives recommendations from a selection commission. The number of judges is set by s.23(2) Constitutional Reform Act 2005, which established the Court, but may be increased by the Queen through an Order in Council under s.23(3). There are currently 12 positions: one President, one Deputy President, and 10 Justices. Judges of the Court who are not already peers are granted the style Lord or Lady for life. [3] [4]

President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom the head of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

The President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is equivalent to the now-defunct position of Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, also known as the Senior Law Lord, who was the highest ranking among the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary.

Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom the second most senior judge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

The Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the second most senior judge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, after the President of the Supreme Court. The office is equivalent to the now-defunct position of Second Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, also known previously as the Second Senior Law Lord, who was the second highest-ranking Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom Highest court of appeal in most of the United Kingdom

The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in the United Kingdom for civil cases, and for criminal cases from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It hears cases of the greatest public or constitutional importance affecting the whole population.

Contents

Qualification

The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 sets out conditions for appointment as a President, Deputy President or Justice of the Court. That person must have held high judicial office (judge of the Supreme Court, English High Court or Court of Appeal, Northern Irish High Court or Court of Appeal, or Scottish Court of Session) for at least two years, [5] or have held rights of audience at the higher courts of England, Scotland or Northern Ireland for at least fifteen years. [6] This means it is not necessary for someone applying to become a judge of the Supreme Court to have previous judicial experience (allowing Jonathan Sumption QC, a leading barrister, to successfully apply for the role in 2011).

Constitutional Reform Act 2005 Constitutional law of the United Kingdom that provided for the countrys Supreme Court and changed other parts of the British judiciary

The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, relevant to UK constitutional law. It provides for a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to take over the previous appellate jurisdiction of the Law Lords as well as some powers of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and removed the functions of Speaker of the House of Lords and Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales from the office of Lord Chancellor.

High Court of Justice one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales

The High Court of Justice in London, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC for legal citation purposes.

Court of Session Supreme civil court of Scotland

The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland and constitutes part of the College of Justice; the supreme criminal court of Scotland is the High Court of Justiciary. The Court of Session sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh and is both a trial court and a court of appeal. Decisions of the court can be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, with the permission of either the Inner House or the Supreme Court. The Court of Session and the local sheriff courts of Scotland have concurrent jurisdiction for all cases with a monetary value in excess of £100,000; the pursuer is given first choice of court. However, the majority of complex, important, or high value cases are brought in the Court of Session. Cases can be remitted to the Court of Session from the sheriff courts, including the Sheriff Personal Injury Court, at the request of the presiding sheriff. Legal aid, administered by the Scottish Legal Aid Board, is available to persons with little disposable income for cases in the Court of Session.

Appointment

Judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by The Queen by the issue of letters patent, [7] on the advice of the Prime Minister, to whom a name is recommended by a special selection commission. The Prime Minister is required by the Constitutional Reform Act to recommend this name to the Queen and not permitted to nominate anyone else. [8]

Letters patent type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order

Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president, or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation. Letters patent can be used for the creation of corporations or government offices, or for the granting of city status or a coat of arms. Letters patent are issued for the appointment of representatives of the Crown, such as governors and governors-general of Commonwealth realms, as well as appointing a Royal Commission. In the United Kingdom they are also issued for the creation of peers of the realm. A particular form of letters patent has evolved into the modern patent granting exclusive rights in an invention. In this case it is essential that the written grant should be in the form of a public document so other inventors can consult it to avoid infringement and also to understand how to "practice" the invention, i.e., put it into practical use. In the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, imperial patent was also the highest form of generally binding legal regulations, e. g. Patent of Toleration, Serfdom Patent etc.

Selection commission

The selection commission is made up of the President and Deputy President of the Court, and a member each from the Judicial Appointments Commission, the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland and the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission. [9] Should either the President's or Deputy President's place on the commission be unfilled, that place is to be taken by the most senior ordinary judge of the court, [10] and should both offices be vacant, by the most senior and second most senior ordinary judges of the court. [11]

The Judicial Appointments Commission(JAC) is an independent commission that selects candidates for judicial office in courts and tribunals in England and Wales and for some tribunals whose jurisdiction extends to Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland

The Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland is an advisory non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government responsible for making recommendations on appointments to certain offices of the judiciary of Scotland. It was established in June 2002 on a non-statutory, ad-hoc, basis by the Scottish Government, and was given statutory authority by the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008.

Selection procedure

Once the commission is formed, there are a number of people it is required to consult. The first group is a set of "senior judges" defined by the Act who do not wish to be considered for nomination. [12] Section 60 of the Act defines "the senior judges" as (a) the other judges of the Supreme Court, (b) the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, (c) the Master of the Rolls, (d) the Lord President of the Court of Session, (e) the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, (f) the Lord Justice Clerk, (g) the President of the Queen's Bench Division, (h) the President of the Family Division and (i) the Chancellor of the High Court. In the event that no judge from one of the UK's three jurisdictions has been consulted (e.g. if the Lord President and Lord Justice Clerk, the two most senior judges in Scotland, both wish to be considered for appointment, they will both be excluded from the consultation), the commission must consult the most senior judge in that jurisdiction who is not a member of the commission and does not wish to be considered for appointment. [13] The commission is then also required to consult the Lord Chancellor, the First Minister of Scotland, the First Minister for Wales and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. [14]

Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales position

The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales and the President of the Courts of England and Wales.

The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, Civil Division, and Head of Civil Justice. As a judge, he is the second in seniority in England and Wales only to the Lord Chief Justice. The position dates from at least 1286, although it is believed that the office probably existed earlier than that.

Lord President of the Court of Session

The Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General is the most senior judge in Scotland, the head of the judiciary, and the presiding judge of the College of Justice, the Court of Session, and the High Court of Justiciary. The Lord President holds the title of Lord Justice General of Scotland and the head of the High Court of Justiciary ex officio, as the two offices were combined in 1836. The Lord President has authority over any court established under Scots law, except for the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and the Court of the Lord Lyon.

The selection must be made on merit, in accordance with the qualification criteria of section 25 of the Act ( above ), of someone not a member of the commission, ensuring that the judges will have between them knowledge and experience of all three of the UK's distinct legal systems, having regard to any guidance given by the Lord Chancellor, and of one person only. [15]

Lord Chancellor's role

Once the commission has selected a nomination to make, this is to be provided in a report to the Lord Chancellor, [16] who is then required to consult the judges and politicians already consulted by the commission before deciding whether to recommend (in the Act, "notify") a name to the Prime Minister, who in turn advises the Queen to make the appointment. The Act provides for up to three stages in the Lord Chancellor's consideration of whether to do so:

  1. When the selection is first put forward, the Lord Chancellor is entitled to accept the nomination, to reject it, or to ask the commission to reconsider it.
  2. If the nomination was rejected in Stage One, the commission must put forward a new name for Stage Two. The Lord Chancellor must either accept or ask the commission to reconsider. If instead the Lord Chancellor asked for reconsideration at Stage One, the commission may either put forward the same name or a new one. In either case, the Lord Chancellor must either accept or reject the name. In other words, the Lord Chancellor has one opportunity to reject and one to ask for reconsideration.
  3. At Stage Three (i.e. when the Lord Chancellor has both rejected and asked once for reconsideration), the name put forward by the commission must be accepted and forwarded to the Prime Minister, with one caveat: in the event the commission was asked to reconsider a name and then forwarded a new name, the Lord Chancellor may choose to accept the earlier name. [17]

Original judges

The Supreme Court was established on 1 October 2009 and assumed the former judicial functions of the House of Lords, which were removed by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, and the twelve Lords of Appeal in Ordinary became judges of the Supreme Court, [18] except for Lord Scott of Foscote, who retired the day before the Court began business, and Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, who resigned to become Master of the Rolls. [19] The former Master of the Rolls, Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, became a judge of the Supreme Court on its first day, the first Justice directly appointed to the Court, [20] and Sir John Dyson was appointed on 13 April 2010, the first Justice not to be a peer.

The Senior Law Lord on 1 October 2009, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, became the Court's first President, [21] and the former Second Senior Law Lord, Lord Hope of Craighead, the first Deputy President. The Court originally had one female Justice, Baroness Hale of Richmond; two Scottish Justices, Lord Hope and Lord Rodger of Earlsferry; and one Northern Irish Justice, Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore.

Of the original Justices, Lord Saville of Newdigate was the first to retire, on 30 September 2010, and Lord Rodger of Earlsferry was the first to die in office, on 26 June 2011. Lord Dyson stood down to become Master of the Rolls on 1 October 2012, the first time a Justice had left the Court to take up another judicial office. The most recent of the original Justices to retire was The Lord Mance (Deputy President 2017–2018) on 6 June 2018. As of 2018, two of the original Justices remain on the court: Baroness Hale of Richmond (Deputy President 2013–17; President 2017–present) and Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore.

List

Current judges

There are 12 judges. In order of seniority, they are as follows:

PortraitNameBorn Alma mater InvestedMandatory
retirement
Prior senior judicial roles
Baroness Brenda Hale.jpg The Baroness Hale
of Richmond

(President)
31 January 1945
(age 74)
1 October 200931 January 2020 Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (2004–2009)
Lord Justice of Appeal (1999–2003)
Justice of the High Court, FD (1994–1999)
Lord Reed 2017 (cropped).png Lord Reed
(Deputy President)
7 September 1956
(age 63)
6 February 20127 September 2026 Senator of the College of Justice:
Inner House (2008–2012)
Outer House (1998–2008)
Lord-Kerr (cropped).jpg The Lord Kerr
of Tonaghmore
22 February 1948
(age 71)
Queen's University Belfast 1 October 200922 February 2023 Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (2009)
Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland (2004–2009)
Justice of the High Court (NI) (1993–2004)
Lord Wilson (cropped).jpg Lord Wilson
of Culworth
9 May 1945
(age 74)
26 May 20119 May 2020 Lord Justice of Appeal (2005–2011)
Justice of the High Court, FD (1993–2005)
Lord Carnwath of Notting Hill (cropped).jpg Lord Carnwath
of Notting Hill
15 March 1945
(age 74)
17 April 201215 March 2020 Senior President of Tribunals (2007–2012)
Lord Justice of Appeal (2002–2012)
Justice of the High Court, CD (1994–2002)
Lord Hodge (cropped).jpg Lord Hodge 19 May 1953
(age 66)
1 October 201319 May 2023 Senator of the College of Justice,
Outer House (2005–2013)
Lady Black of Derwent (cropped).jpg Lady Black
of Derwent
1 June 1954
(age 65)
2 October 20171 June 2024 Lady Justice of Appeal (2010–2017)
Justice of the High Court, FD (1999–2010)
Lord Lloyd-Jones (cropped).jpg Lord Lloyd-Jones 13 January 1952
(age 67)
2 October 201713 January 2022 Lord Justice of Appeal (2012–2017)
Justice of the High Court, QBD (2005–2012)
Lord Briggs (cropped).jpg Lord Briggs
of Westbourne
23 December 1954
(age 64)
2 October 201723 December 2024 Lord Justice of Appeal (2013–2017)
Justice of the High Court, CD (2006–2013)
Lady Arden 2010.png Lady Arden
of Heswall
23 January 1947
(age 72)
1 October 201823 January 2022 Lady Justice of Appeal (2000–2018)
Justice of the High Court, CD (1993–2000)
Lord Kitchin (cropped).jpg Lord Kitchin 30 April 1955
(age 64)
1 October 201830 April 2025 Lord Justice of Appeal (2011–2018)
Justice of the High Court, CD (2005–2011)
Lord Sales 11 February 1962
(age 57)
11 January 201911 February 2032 Lord Justice of Appeal (2014–2018)
Justice of the High Court, CD (2008–2014)

The following people will be appointed as Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, replacing Justices who reach the statutory retirement age:

Furthermore, Lord Reed has been announced as the next President of the Supreme Court, taking office in January 2020. [22]

Acting judges and supplementary panel

Under section 38 of the Constitutional Reform Act, the President of the Court is empowered to request the service of additional judges on the Court, drawn from two categories of people: the first is any person serving as a "senior territorial judge", defined by section 38(8) as a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the Inner House of the Court of Session, or the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland (unless the judge holds the latter office only by virtue of being a puisne judge of the High Court in Northern Ireland). Lord Judge [23] [24] occasionally sat on cases in the Supreme Court when he was Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, as did Neuberger when he was Master of the Rolls. Both Reed (prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court) and Lord Clarke, judges of the Court of Session, sat on the Supreme Court during Rodger's last illness.

The second category of additional judges is the supplementary panel: approved Supreme Court justices and territorial judges who have retired from judicial service within the past five years and are younger than 75.

The supplementary panel currently consists of: [25]

Salary

As of 1 October 2019, Justices of the Supreme Court, including the Deputy President, were in Group 2 of the judicial salary scheme, with an annual salary of £226,193. This is the same group as the Chancellor of the High Court, Lord Justice Clerk, President of the Family Division and President of the Queen's Bench Division. [1] The President of the Supreme Court, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, Lord President of the Court of Session and Master of the Rolls make up Group 1.1 of the scale on £234,184, below only the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, who earns £262,264. [1]

Dress

On ceremonial occasions, such as the State Opening of Parliament and the ceremony at Westminster Abbey to mark the beginning of the judicial year, and also at the swearing in of a new member of the Court, the Justices wear ceremonial robes of black silk damask trimmed with gold lace and frogs in the same pattern as the Lord Chancellor's state robes. The robe has no train, and the flap collar and shoulder caps bear the Supreme Court insignia. The Justices do not wear wigs or court dress as others in the legal and official positions do, although Lady Hale has taken to wearing a black velvet Tudor bonnet with gold cord and tassel which is the common headwear for doctorates in British academical dress. [26] The robes were made by Ede & Ravenscroft with the embroidery by Hand & Lock. [27]

On other occasions, the Justices wear day dress. This follows the convention adopted by the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, which was, technically, not a court but a committee of that House.

See also

Related Research Articles

Judicial functions of the House of Lords Historical judicial role of the UK House of Lords

The House of Lords of the United Kingdom, in addition to having a legislative function, historically also had a judicial function. It functioned as a court of first instance for the trials of peers, for impeachment cases, and as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. In the latter case the House's jurisdiction was essentially limited to the hearing of appeals from the lower courts. Appeals were technically not to the House of Lords, but rather to the Queen-in-Parliament. By constitutional convention, only those lords who were legally qualified heard the appeals, since World War II usually in what was known as the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords rather than in the chamber of the House.

Lord Chancellor Highest-ranking regularly-appointed Great Officer of State of the United Kingdom

The Lord Chancellor, formally the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest ranking among those Great Officers of State which are appointed regularly in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the Prime Minister. The Lord Chancellor is outranked only by the Lord High Steward, another Great Officer of State, who is appointed only for the day of coronations. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister. Prior to the Union there were separate lord chancellors for England and Wales, for Scotland and for Ireland.

The Chief Justice of Ireland is the president of the Supreme Court of Ireland. The current Chief Justice is Frank Clarke.

Chancellor of the High Court

The Chancellor of the High Court is the head of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. This judge and the other two heads of divisions sit by virtue of their offices often, as and when their expertise is deemed relevant, in panel in the Court of Appeal. As such this judge ranks equally to the President of the Family Division and the President of the Queen's Bench Division..

Judiciary of England and Wales

There are various levels of judiciary in England and Wales — different types of courts have different styles of judges. They also form a strict hierarchy of importance, in line with the order of the courts in which they sit, so that judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales are generally given more weight than district judges sitting in county courts and magistrates' courts. At 31 March 2006 there were 1,825 judges in post in England and Wales, most of whom were circuit judges (626) or district judges (572). Some judges with United Kingdom-wide jurisdiction also sit in England and Wales, particularly Justices of the United Kingdom Supreme Court and members of the tribunals judiciary.

David Neuberger, Baron Neuberger of Abbotsbury British judge

David Edmond Neuberger, Baron Neuberger of Abbotsbury, PC, GBS, HonFRS is an English judge. He served as President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from 2012 to 2017. He was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary until the House of Lords' judicial functions were transferred to the new Supreme Court in 2009, at which point he became Master of the Rolls, the second most senior judge in England and Wales. Neuberger was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2012. He also serves as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal.

Judiciaries of the United Kingdom Systems of courts of law in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland

The judiciary of the United Kingdom are the separate judiciaries of the three legal systems in England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. However, the judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, Employment Tribunals, Employment Appeal Tribunal and the UK tribunals system do have a United Kingdom–wide jurisdiction.

The Court of Chancery was a court which exercised equitable jurisdiction in Ireland until its abolition as part of the reform of the court system in 1877. It was the court in which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland presided. Its final sitting place was at the Four Courts in Dublin.

Judges Council

The Judges' Council is a body in England and Wales that, representing the judiciary, advises the Lord Chief Justice on judicial matters. It has its historical roots in the original Council of the Judges of the Supreme Court, created by the Judicature Act 1873 to oversee the new Supreme Court of Judicature. This body initially met regularly, reforming the procedure used by the circuit courts, and the new High Court of Justice but met less regularly as time went on, meeting only twice between 1900 and 1907, with a gap of ten years between meetings in 1940 and 1950 respectively. After relative inactivity, it was eventually wound up through the Supreme Court Act 1981, which contained no provisions for its continued existence, something Denis Dobson attributes to newer bodies which performed the duties the Council had originally been created to do.

John Dyson, Lord Dyson British judge

Sir John Anthony Dyson, Lord Dyson, is a former British judge and barrister. He was Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice, the second most senior judge in England and Wales, from 2012 to 2016, and a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2012. He was the first justice to be appointed who was not a peer.

Her Majestys Courts and Tribunals Service an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice

Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. It was created on 1 April 2011 by the merger of Her Majesty's Courts Service and the Tribunals Service.

The Vice-President of the Civil Division is a Court of Appeal Judge who assists the Master of the Rolls in leading the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The power to appoint a Vice-President was created by the Senior Courts Act 1981, but was not exercised until Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers was appointed Master of the Rolls in 2000. Because Lord Phillips was in the process of completing the inquiry into the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak, he appointed Sir Martin Nourse the first Vice-President so he could serve as Acting Master of the Rolls.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Judicial salaries from 1 October 2010" (PDF). Ministry of Justice . Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  2. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, s.23(6)
  3. "Warrant under the Royal Sign Manual". London Gazette. 1 April 2011.
  4. "Press release: Courtesy titles for Justices of the Supreme Court" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. 13 December 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  5. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, section 25(1)(a)
  6. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, section 25(1)(b)
  7. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, section 23(2)
  8. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, sections 26(2)&(3)
  9. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, schedule 8 para 1(1)
  10. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, schedule 8 para 2
  11. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, schedule 8 para 3
  12. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, section 27(2)(a)
  13. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, section 27(3)
  14. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, section 27(2)(b)-(e)
  15. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, section 27(5)-(10)
  16. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, section 28.
  17. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, section 29.
  18. Constitutional Reform Act 2005, section 24(a)
  19. Gibb, Frances (23 July 2009). "Lord Neuberger named Master of the Rolls". London: The Times . Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  20. "Lord Clarke appointed Justice of the UK Supreme Court". 10 Downing Street. 20 April 2009. Archived from the original on 8 April 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  21. "Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers appointed as senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary". 10 Downing Street. 1 April 2008. Archived from the original on 8 December 2009. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  22. "Appointments to the Supreme Court: 24 July 2019".
  23. "Press Summary: R (Noone) v HMP Drake Hall" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. 30 June 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  24. "Press Summary: Norris v USA" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. 24 February 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  25. "Supplementary List". The Supreme Court. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  26. "£140,000 bill for Supreme Court robes judges will hardly wear". Daily Mail. 13 December 2009. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
  27. "The Supreme Court". Hand & Lock. 2 October 2009. Retrieved 24 June 2012.