It will be sitting in Edinburgh in June
The Supreme Court has announced it will be sitting outside of London for the first time ever later this year.
Packing up their papers — and Lord Sumption his ties — at least five of the justices will be heading north to Edinburgh to hear several appeals this June. They will be sitting alongside Lord Carloway, Lord President of the Court of Session, in at least one appeal.
Though rumours the team will be taking a nine-hour Megabus from London Victoria as yet remain unconfirmed, it has been revealed the court will sit in the City Chambers (pictured below), which houses the City of Edinburgh Council.
A quick scan of Google maps shows this is located just by a ghost tour, which may interest the justices, and a Burger King, which will come in handy if one of them gets peckish. Other nearby landmarks include some “chic apartments” for the team to stay in, The Edinburgh Dungeon and The Edinburgh Pub Crawl.
Today’s news comes months after the Supreme Court’s president, Lord Neuberger, revealed he fancied the idea of a cross-country trip. Speaking at the Bar Council’s Law Reform Lecture, he said:
Ideally, we would sit, say, in Edinburgh and hear not just one Scottish case, but also an English, Welsh or Northern Irish case in order to remind people that we are a UK court.
Now Neuberger’s Supreme Court on tour dreams have come true, will he be one of the lucky five to head north? The top judge is scheduled to retire in the summer, so fingers crossed he makes it to Edinburgh before then. On today’s development, he said:
We make every effort to ensure our proceedings are accessible throughout the UK via our free live streaming service. However, nothing beats being able to observe courts at first hand. We look forward to welcoming members of the public as well as lawyers during what is intended to be the first of a number of visits to the capital cities of the devolved nations.
For all the latest news, features, events and jobs, sign up to Legal Cheek’s weekly newsletter here.