New Supreme Court Justice

Sir John Dyson has just been appointed as the twelfth Supreme Court Justice. The UK Supreme Court blog has a brief profile of him here. For students, he makes an interesting case study - does this Grammar school boy conform to the judicial stereotype of old, white, Oxbridge males?

Appointments to the Supreme Court are made under s8 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. Another important feature of the Act to note it that it imposes, under section 3, a duty on government to uphold the independence of the judiciary.

Appointments to the Supreme Court are made by a committee composed of the President and Deputy President of the Supreme Court and members of the appointment bodies for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This reflects reforms to the judical appointments process exemplified by the Judicial Appointments Commission in England and Wales, designed to make the process more transparent and accountable, by placing the task of selecting judges in the hands of independent commissioners as opposed to the Lord Chancellor.

A lot to contemplate here for teachers and students alike around separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.