Share it
On Monday 19 April 2010 Sir John Dyson was sworn in as the twelfth justice of the Supreme Court. The Court released an up to date “group photograph” (right), showing the court’s full complement of justices. The Court’s restrained press office released its third press release of the year to mark the occasion.
The press release describes a “simple ceremony” in which Sir John took the judicial oath
“watched by the other Justices of the Supreme Court, also dressed in their ceremonial robes, as well as friends, family and other guests”
As far as we are aware, the ceremony was not filmed (if we are wrong, please send us the link). The Press Release was not widely picked up. The ceremony attracted a short comment on the Times “Law Central” blog and in the “Guardian”. The absence of any other media comment reflects the court’s continuing low media profile. A report in the Solicitors’ Journal confirms that Sir John will not be known as a ‘lord’ and that new female justices of the Supreme Court will be referred to as ‘Dame’, rather than ‘Lady.’
2 comments
Sian Lewis said:
22/04/2010 at 15:21
I was interested to read the piece above. Three major press agencies took photographs following Sir John’s swearing in and these images have been distributed widely, resulting in photos appearing in both the Guardian and Independent. It may well have been that other media chose not to cover on the basis they had run stories previously when the announcement of Sir John’s appointment was made by the Government. Just a thought….
It may also be worth noting that while this was the third ‘press release’ sent out by the ‘restrained’ press office of the Court since January there have been sixteen press summaries for judgments issued in that time, plus alerts to media contacts for all of these. The media were also alerted to cases of possible interest before the start of the Term in a briefing document. Not sure what you mean by a continuing low media profile when the decisions and proceedings at the Court generate widespread coverage across a range of media. See for example today’s coverage in The Guardian, Sun, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Times and Independent.
To be clear, your point about “Dame” and “Lady” refers to new female Justices.
Finally we did film the swearing in and it was made available to all major broadcasters as usual.
Blog Editorial said:
23/04/2010 at 09:46
Thank you for this clarification. We hope that all our readers are aware of the extremely helpful press summaries of judgments – which are of great assistance in improving understanding of the Court’s decisions. We have clarified the post in relation to the titles of female justices. We would be very pleased to post the film of the swearing in if that is available.