Supreme court seeks new judges who will 'improve its diversity' | Law | The Guardian. The supreme court began its search for three new judges on Thursday, seeking members who will “improve the diversity of the court”. Of the court’s 11 current members, 10 are men and all are white. Just two were not privately educated. On Thursday, the court’s president Lord Neuberger said he and his colleagues want that to change. “What we are looking for is to recruit on the basis that the court becomes more diverse,” he said. He also spoke out about media attacks on the judges in the wake of November’s high court decision on the Brexit case: “We [judges] were certainly not well treated. One has to be careful about being critical of the press, particularly as a lawyer or judge, because our view of life is very different from that of the media. I think some of what was said was undermining the rule of law.” Neuberger is retiring in September, along with fellow supreme court judge Lord Clarke.
At the tribunal level, the courts are more diverse. This time, though, the focus is different. Attacks on judges undermine law - Supreme Court president. The president of the UK's Supreme Court has criticised politicians for not doing enough to defend judges following a row over the Brexit legal challenge. Lord Neuberger said politicians did not speak out quickly or clearly enough and some media attacks had been unfair. He said unjustified attacks on the judiciary undermined the rule of law. After the government lost the Article 50 case at the High Court, a Daily Mail headline called the three judges in the case "enemies of the people". Lord Neuberger, who retires in September, was speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme a month after the Supreme Court ruled that only Parliament, not ministers, had the power to trigger the UK's exit from the EU because that was where laws were made. The Daily Mail's front page story was published when the government lost the first stage of the legal battle at the High Court last November.
"I think some of what was said was undermining the rule of law. " What is the Supreme Court? Image copyright EPA. The 11 Supreme Court judges who could rule on UK's Brexit appeal. Image copyright Supreme Court The government is to appeal against the High Court's ruling that Article 50 cannot be invoked without Parliament's support, so that means the case will now be heard in the Supreme Court, the highest in the land, in December. For the first time, all 11 of the court's permanent justices, including those from Northern Ireland and Scotland, are expected to preside over the case, but who are they? Supreme Court president Lord Neuberger Image copyright PA Lord Neuberger, 68, is the president of the Supreme Court, a position he has held since 2012, and is the UK's most senior judge.
After studying chemistry at Oxford University he worked at the merchant bank N M Rothschild & Sons from 1970-1973 until he was called to the Bar in 1974. In 2013 he voiced fears about legal aid cuts, telling the BBC they could lead people to "take the law into their own hands". He has two sons and one daughter.
Deputy president Lady Hale Lord Mance Lord Kerr Lord Clarke Lord Wilson Lord Sumption. Humiliating defeat for Theresa May in Supreme Court appeal over 'stateless' former terror suspect stripped of British citizenship | Crime. The Home Secretary, Theresa May, lost her landmark Supreme Court appeal today in the case of a former Iraqi refugee granted British nationality and who was later stripped of his citizenship which he said left him stateless. The decision paves the way for Hilal Abdul Razzaq Ali Al-Jedda, who was once held as a terrorist suspect, to return to the UK from Turkey where he currently lives with his family.
In a humiliating verdict the five justices said that if Mrs May’s had paid more attention to her own guidance she would have realised the “fallacy” of her appeal. It is the first case on the issue of deprivation of nationality to reach the Supreme Court and legal experts believe it will be important in the context of the prevention of statelessness. Mr al-Jedda, 56, fled from Saddam Hussein’s regime in 1992 and arrived in the UK. The written judgment said: “The Supreme Court unanimously dismisses the appeal by the Secretary of State. Jonathan Sumption: the brain of Britain | Wendell Steavenson | Law. In October 2012, Jonathan Sumption QC argued his last case as a barrister. It was a big one; in terms of fees (undisclosed, but probably north of £5m) the biggest of his career. He had deferred his appointment to the supreme court in order to see it through. Sumption was representing the billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich against his nemesis the billionaire oligarch Boris Berezovsky.
He had cleared his desk and spent months studying the murky nexus of politics and business in Russia in the 1990s. On day four of the trial, Sumption began his cross-examination of Berezovsky. Sumption’s first question was: “In 1995, what was your opinion about political corruption?” “As far as me is concerned, my opinion is that definitely it was corruption in Russia, much less than now, but it was,” said Berezovsky, beginning a dance of equivocation. Sumption’s second on the case, Helen Davies QC, watched with accustomed admiration. Sumption himself was characteristically modest in the retelling. Judiciary is making progress on diversity, says lord chief justice | Law. Significant progress is being made towards a more diverse judiciary, according to the lord chief justice, who has declared: “We are on the road to delivery.” In a speech that may be read as a rebuke to those warning it could take 50 years to achieve gender equality on the bench, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd said that appointing judges who reflect the variety of backgrounds in British society is vital for preserving public confidence in justice.
His comments follow statements made last month by Jonathan Sumption, one of 11 men on the 12-person UK supreme court, who suggested it could take half a century to achieve equality within the senior judiciary. Lord Sumption also pointed to “lifestyle choice” as one of the reasons women do not tolerate the long working hours that pave the way to a career on the bench. “Whatever views there are on the extent of judicial activism in developing the law, robust judicial activism is entirely right in building a diverse judiciary.
Lady Hale: supreme court should be ashamed if diversity does not improve | Law. The UK’s supreme court should be “ashamed” if it does not radically improve its diversity in the next round of judicial appointments, according to its only female judge, Lady Hale. Over the past decade all justices selected to sit on the UK’s highest court have been male, white and predominantly privately educated, she told an audience at Birmingham University on Friday. Hale’s forthright speech may be read as a deliberate rebuke to remarks from her fellow supreme court justice Lord Sumption, who claimed that any attempt to speed up the process of achieving gender equality in the senior judiciary could lead to “appalling consequences”. His suggestion that it may take 50 years to achieve gender equality in the senior judiciary prompted a furore within the legal profession and allegations of sexism.
Hale, 70, is the only woman on the 12-strong supreme court bench. Fifteen people have been sworn in as law lords or supreme court justices since then, she said. Jonathan Sumption: the brain of Britain | Wendell Steavenson | Law.