Supreme Court & review of the course Separation of powers Joy Johnson

Reading King, The British Constitution, particularly ch 6, 10 and ch 14 Morrison, Essential Public Affairs for Journalists ch 1, 2

Out goes Historic Lord Chancellor “Not for the first time, the constitution was soon changed quite casually, almost by accident. In June 2003 Tony Blair, the PM, for reasons of his own, sacked Lord Irvine in the midst of a routine ministerial reshuffle...He didn’t just replace Lord Irvine as lord chancellor; he announced a radical shake up of the entire top end of the judicial system”.

In would come a Supreme Court “Out would go the historic office of lord chancellor. In would come the new post of secretary of state for constitutional affairs. Out would go the law lords membership of the legislative as well as the judicial House of Lords. In would come a new Supreme Court of the UK...” King, The British Constitution p 147, ch 6

Lord Irvine

Law Lords in the Lords Delivered Judgements in the House of Lords yooQ yooQ

Separation of powers Executive (the government) Legislature (Parliament) Judiciary (the Courts

Law Lords Existing Law Lords can still sit in the House of Lords but judgements now made in the Supreme Court Supreme Court - separate building Greater emphasis on separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary

Supreme Court Rulings/live coverage

Next week review of the political issues European Union Political and historical context that has led up to the announcement of an in/out referendum

Some key dates for the EU 1951 Creation of ECSC under Treaty of Paris 1957 Creation of EEC under Treaty of Rome 1960s De Gaulle rebuffs Britain’s application (1963, 1967) 1973 Britain (+ Den, Ire) members of EEC 1986 Deepening of internal market: Single European Act 1992 Deepening of political union: Treaty on European Union (‘Maastricht’) 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam 2000 Treaty of Nice 2007 Treaty of Lisbon

Review - Cobra