The Future of the United Kingdom's Highest Courts Andrew Le Sueur Barber Professor of Jurisprudence, The University of Birmingham Richard Cornes Lecturer in Public Law, University of Essex Funded by the ISBN: 1 903903 03 3 Published by The Constitution Unit School of Public Policy UCL (University College London) 29/30 Tavistock Square London WClH 9QU Tel: 020 7679 4977 Fax: 020 7679 4978 Email: [email protected] Web: www.ucl.ac.uWconstirution-unid O Andrew Le Sueur and Richard Cornes, 2001 This report is sold subject to the condition that is shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any fonn of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. First published June 2001 Contents Preface ....................................................................................................................................................6 The UK top courts project ................................................................................................................6 Other publications from the project ............................................................................................... 6 Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................7 A note on terminology .....................................................................................................................7 Responses are welcomed .................................................................................................................7 1Introduction .......................................................................................................................................8 1. 1 Scope and purpose of the report ............................................................................................8 1.2 Why consider the issue now?.................................................................................................. 8 1.3 Top courts' outputs ..................................................................................................................9 1.4 Constitutional 'fit' ...................................................................................................................11 1.5 National perspectives ...........................................................................................................12 1.6 Are there lessons from other legal systems? .......................................................................14 1.7 Structure of the report ............................................................................................................14 2 Portraits of the UK's top level courts .......................................................................................... 16 2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................16 2.2 House of Lords ........................................................................................................................16 2.3 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council .............................................................................21 2.4 Relationship between Appellate and Judicial Committees ..............................................25 2.5 The character of the Committees .........................................................................................26 3 Core institutionai qualities of top IeveI courts ........................................................................ 28 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 28 3.2 Institutional autonomy ..........................................................................................................29 3.3 Transparency ...........................................................................................................................33 3.4 Acco~mtability......................................................................................................................... 35 3.5 Efficiency.................................................................................................................................. 38 4 Functions of the UK's top courts .............................................................................................. 39 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 39 4.2 Better quality adjudication .................................................................................................... 39 4.3 Determining important cases ................................................................................................40 4.4 Error correction ....................................................................................................................... 40 4.5 Constitutional protection ....................................................................................................... 41 4.6 System management .............................................................................................................. 43 4.7 Innovation ...............................................................................................................................44 4.8 Other functions ....................................................................................................................... 45 5 Political context of reform ........................................................................................................... 46 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................46 5.2 Missed opportunities for reform ...................................................................................... 46 5.3 Political disincentives to reform ........................................................................................... 49 5.4 Future political 'fuels' for change .........................................................................................51 5.5 What style of change? ............................................................................................................56 6 The machinery of change .............................................................................................................59 6.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................59 6.2 The ambitions of reform ........................................................................................................59 6.3 Machinery for developing policy ......................................................................................... 60 6.4 Machinery for implementing change ...................................................................................63 7 Options for major structural change and the status quo......................................................... 65 7.1 Overview ..................................................................................................................................65 7.2 Why these models? .................................................................................................................66 7.3 The Scottish questions and structural change ....................................................................66 7.4 The court's premises and location ........................................................................................70 7.5 Are we predisposed to structural change? ..................................................................... 70 7.6 Is the status quo a viable structural option? .......................................................................71 8 Structural change -- a UK supreme court .................................................................................. 74 8.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................74 8.2 The UK supreme court's jurisdiction ...................................................................................74 8.3 The status of the supreme court ...........................................................................................76 8.4 Judges of the supreme court .................................................................................................76 8.5 Structural advantages of a new supreme court .................................................................76 8.6 Conclusions .............................................................................................................................78 ' 9 Structural change .a constitutional court 'plus' ...................................................................... 79 9.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................79 9.2 Recent political background .................................................................................................. 79 9.3 The constitutionai court's formal jurisdiction ....................................................................85 9.4 The benefits of this model .....................................................................................................86