UK Supreme Court

Here are details of the five judges who will be 'on the bench' in the UK Supreme Court - for Monday's FOI appeal hearing involving South Lanarkshire Council.  

I've never met any of them before, but according to their CVs they seem to know their stuff - so here's hoping they come up with the 'right' result.

Lady Hale

Deputy President of The Supreme Court, The Right Hon the Baroness Hale of Richmond

Lady Hale was appointed Deputy President of The Supreme Court in June 2013, succeeding Lord Hope of Craighead.

 

In January 2004, Lady Hale became the United Kingdom’s first woman Lord of Appeal in Ordinary after a varied career as an academic lawyer, law reformer, and judge. In October 2009 she became the first woman Justice of The Supreme Court.

 

After graduating from Cambridge in 1966, she taught law at Manchester University from 1966 to 1984, also qualifying as a barrister and practising for a while at the Manchester Bar. She specialised in Family and Social Welfare law, was founding editor of the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, and authored a pioneering case book on ‘The Family, Law and Society’.

In 1984 she was the first woman to be appointed to the Law Commission, a statutory body which promotes the reform of the law. Important legislation resulting from the work of her team at the Commission includes the Children Act 1989, the Family Law Act 1996, and the Mental Capacity Act 2005. She also began sitting as an assistant recorder.

In 1994 she became a High Court judge, the first to have made her career as an academic and public servant rather than a practising barrister. In 1999 she was the second woman to be promoted to the Court of Appeal, before becoming the first woman Law Lord.

She retains her links with the academic world as Chancellor of the University of Bristol, Visitor of Girton College, Cambridge, and Visiting Professor of Kings College London.  A home maker as well as a judge, she thoroughly enjoyed helping the artists and architects create a new home for The Supreme Court.
 

Lord Kerr

Justice of The Supreme Court, The Right Hon the Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore

Lord Kerr served as Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland from 2004 to 2009, and was the last Lord of Appeal in Ordinary appointed before the creation of The Supreme Court.

 

Lord Kerr was educated at St Colman’s College, Newry, and read law at Queen’s University, Belfast.  He was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1970, and to the Bar of England and Wales at Gray’s Inn in 1974.

He served as Junior Crown Counsel from 1978 to 1983, at which point he took silk and served as Senior Crown Counsel from 1988 to 1993. In 1993 he was appointed a Judge of the High Court and knighted. He became Lord Chief Justice and joined the Privy Council in 2004.

Lord Kerr succeeded Lord Carswell of Killeen as Northern Ireland’s Lord of Appeal in Ordinary on 29 June 2009, the last Law Lord appointed before the creation of The Supreme Court.

Lord Wilson

Justice of The Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Wilson of Culworth

In 1967, after reading jurisprudence at Worcester College, Oxford, Lord Wilson was called to the Bar of England and Wales; and for the next 26 years, first as a junior and ultimately in silk, he practised almost exclusively in the field of family law.

 

From 1993 until 2005 he was a judge of the Family Division of the High Court. From 2005 until May 2011 he was a judge of the Court of Appeal.

In May 2011 he became a Justice of The Supreme Court.

 

Lord Reed

Justice of The Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Reed
Lord Reed is one of the two Scottish Justices of The Supreme Court. After studying law at the universities of Edinburgh and Oxford, he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1983, where he undertook a wide range of civil work.

He served as a senior judge in Scotland for 13 years, being appointed to the Outer House of the Court of Session in 1998 and promoted to the Inner House in January 2008. During 1999 he sat as an ad hoc judge of the European Court of Human Rights.

 

Lord Carnwath

Justice of The Supreme Court, The Right Hon Lord Carnwath of Notting Hill, CVO

After studying law at Trinity College, Cambridge, Lord Carnwath was called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1968 and took silk in 1985. He served as Attorney General to the Prince of Wales from 1988 to 1994.

 

He was a judge of the Chancery Division from 1994 to 2002, during which time (1998 to 2002) he was also Chairman of the Law Commission. Lord Carnwath was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2002.

Between 2007 and 2012 he was Senior President of Tribunals and led the planning and implementation of the reforms of the tribunal system following the Leggatt report.