4.1 the supreme court and the legislative and policy-making process

Question 1

What are the three branches of government?

Answer 1

• executive
• legislature
• judiciary

Question 2

What does the executive do?

Answer 2

takes and implements decisions on policy

Question 3

What does the legislature do?

Answer 3

makes laws

Question 4

What does the judiciary do?

Answer 4

judges interpret the law through rulings made in court cases

Question 5

When did the Supreme Court open?

Answer 5

1 October 2009

Question 6

What act established the Supreme Court?

Answer 6

Constitutional Reform Act of 2005

Question 7

What was the supreme court designed to do?

Answer 7

end the fusion of powers at the highest level of the UK judiciary

Question 8

How many members are there in the supreme court?

Answer 8

12

Question 9

Who is the president of the Supreme Court?

Answer 9

Lord Robert Reed

Question 10

Who are nominations for the Supreme Court made by?

Answer 10

Independent five-member Selection Commission

Question 11

Who is in the Independent five-member Selection Commission for the Supreme Court?

Answer 11

• president of the Court
• deputy president of the Court
• member of the Judicial Appointments Commission
• member of each of the equivalent bodies for Scotland and Northern Ireland

Question 12

What are the two key principles that the judicial system in the UK rests on?

Answer 12

• judicial neutrality
• judicial independence

Question 13

What is judicial neutrality?

Answer 13

• the expectation that judges will exercise their functions without personal bias

Question 14

What are conflicts of interest?

Answer 14

judges must refuse to sit in a case that involves a family member, friend, professional associate, which might give rise to doubt about the justices detachment

Question 15

What are public activities?

Answer 15

• judges may write and give lectures as part of their function of educating the public, and they may involve themselves in charitable and voluntary activities
• but they must avoid political activity
• a judge may serve on an official body such as a government commission provided that it does not compromise their political neutrality

Question 16

Why is there long-standing anxiety about the senior judiciary?

Answer 16

contains a disproportionate number of white, privately educated males

Question 17

What was the Radmacher v Granatino (2010) case?

Answer 17

• involved a pre-nuptial agreement between marriage partners
• majority of the justices upheld the principle that claims made in the event of a divorce should be limited
• Lade Hale was the only one to dissent

Question 18

What is judicial independence?

Answer 18

the principle that judges must be free from political interference

Question 19

What is the only way that judges may be removed from office?

Answer 19

if they break the law

Question 20

What are the three built in guarantees of independence (Supreme Court)?

Answer 20

• terms of employment
• pay
• appointment

Question 21

How are judges paid?

Answer 21

• paid automatically from an independent budget (Consolidated Fund)

Question 22

What is a declaration of incompatibility?

Answer 22

Supreme Court can issue one if it believes an existing piece of UK legislation is going against the HRA

Question 23

What is judicial review?

Answer 23

the power of the judiciary to review actions by other branches of government that breach the law or are incompatible with the HRA

Question 24

What is ultra vires?

Answer 24

‘beyond the powers’
- an action is taken without legal authority