Access to the Supreme Court – the English Approach

Abstract

The United Kingdom Supreme Court (UKSC) is a relatively new supreme court, as it started to sit as recently as 2009. It is the statutory successor to the House of Lords’ judicial powers. The text sets out the following issues: the court’s jurisdiction, standing, permission to appeal requirements, substantive nature of appeals, tied decisions and reopening of appeals. Next, the author proceeds to examine the nature of the remedies avaible to it, and any restrictions that apply to them. The text demonstrates the UKSC’s wide-ranging appellate jurisdiction, which enables it to exercise the full range of powers of the courts from which appeals are made it. However, in the majority of cases, access to the UKSC is limited due to the Court’s focus on legal questions of general public importance. As a result of it, the UKSC deals with a small number of cases on an annual basis. Although the Court is not supposed to carry out a judicial review of legislative action, the author hints at a nascent movement towards establishing a US-style power to strike down legislation.