A Supreme Capital Experience

Posting by Bev Bishop, Marketing Co-ordinator

                                                           

One of the highlights in my education was always fieldtrips and this week I got the opportunity to join second year Law students on one of their fieldtrips, when I travelled down to London to visit the highest courts in the land.

The coach left College at just after 8.00am and we enjoyed a good journey until we hit the capital. Normal weekday traffic in London is very congested and the final leg of our journey was a snail’s pace through Central London. Our destination was the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand.

Having already visited Birmingham Crown Court, these courts are more what you might expect from a British court room, in that they include more old fashioned architecture. The walls are panelled with dark varnished wood and book cases with old bound law volumes.

Three judges sit in on the cases in these courts, hearing mostly appeals. This means that barristers and lawyers are present, but no jury and often the appeal is conducted without defendants or witnesses being present. The judges and barristers are all dressed in gowns and wigs and address each other with reverence and respect. That’s not to say that there isn’t ever any drama! One group of students sat in on a case in which someone in the public gallery got up and pounded the wall with their fist in anger and frustration when the case was not going their way!

Among the cases being heard on this trip was a complicated case about deportation. This is something that has been much in the news of late, and this particular case involved the Home Office wanting to deport an individual to Somalia. The individual in question is being held in custody while this is resolved and the case has been going on for many months.

In other court rooms, there were appeals for drug and violent crime convictions. These appeals hung on key pieces of evidence and testimony, including whether the accused knew that the package (labelled semolina!) contained drugs or not and whether witness testimony could be trusted.

After lunch, we took a short coach trip to Westminster and visited the Supreme Court, situated opposite the House of Parliament and adjacent to Westminster Abbey. After the inevitable security checks, we took advantage of the exhibition downstairs, which provides information about this newest of legal bodies. The Supreme Court was only set up in 2009 so that the highest court of appeal in the UK would be separate from the UK government. Previously, this was affiliated to the House of Lords.

Amidst the sumptuous surroundings of wood panelled walls and plate glass windows featuring coats of arms, we enjoyed a brief talk on how the Supreme Court works. We were told how the Supreme Court does not hold trials, but instead is where highly qualified barristers argue points of law in appeals, which if granted will then affect and change laws.

It is the final court of appeal in the UK and only cases which are deemed to be in the public interest make it to this court. Panels of Lord Justices sit in on these cases and make the final judgements. Any lawyer can apply to be a Lord Justice (even if they have not previously been a judge) and cases are heard by panels of 5, 7 or in very rare cases 9 Lord Justices.

The work of the Supreme Court is very complex, but we were given some examples of cases heard there which made the work done more easy to understand. This included the case of someone who was trying to make money selling Storm Trooper helmets from Star Wars, who had been sued by Lucas Film who made the films. We were also told of a privacy case involving supermodel Naomi Campbell.

After our talk, we got to sit in on a case being heard, regarding a tobacco company and corporate tax. I think I can speak for most of the staff and students when I say that most of it was far too complicated for us to understand, but the experience did give us all an insight into how the Supreme Court works.

It was a great day out and I think the students will have learnt a lot, not least how the whole appeals system works, which will hopefully really benefit them when they sit their exams. I also got to relive one of my favourite memories from my time in school!