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Although the formal opening ceremony for the Court will not take place until 16 October, today marks the swearing in of the Justices at the start of the legal year and there has been extensive press coverage of the new court.
The BBC have a series of artistic pictures of the new court (including the one on the right) and a short news piece.
The Times goes one better with an online slideshow with 9 images and an eight page Supreme Court supplement in the print edition.
Writing in The Times’ Supreme Court supplement, historian Tristram Hunt tells us that the ‘Supreme Court is a perfectly English idea’
The Times‘ coverage includes a general article by legal correspondent Frances Gibb and article headed ‘Supreme Court opens as fears rise of US style selection of judges’ although the source of “fears” mentioned in the headline is not revealed in the article. The online edition contains an interesting article by Richard Cornes about the selection of judges. David Pannick’s article has the headline ‘The Supreme Court may have been a shambles but is getting better all the time’.
The online edition of The Times contains a number of interesting pieces which did not find their way into the Supplement. These include an article by our own Dan Tench and Hugh Tomlinson about the UKSCBlog, an article containing the views of Canadian Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and South African Constitutional Court judge Kate O’Regan, an article by John Battle under the headline ‘TV Coverage means justice really will be seen to be done’ and discussion of the ‘Supreme Court and the City’.
Meanwhile, The Guardian‘s editorial discusses ‘Britain’s October Revolution’, although suggests only “subtle changes”.
Duncan Gardham, the Telegraph’s Security Correspondent, has an article on the Supreme Court’s first hearing (A v HM Treasury). There is also a piece by Femi Alese, Lecturer in law at Aston University, entitled ‘Supreme Court: People’s court or more of the same?‘, discussing “significant future challenges” the Court faces – particularly over its “selection, composition, sitting arrangements and the need for a further restructuring of the courts below it.”
There is a Press Association piece in The Independent, which focuses on the Law Lords’ removal from the legislature. It suggests that “some lawyers believe it is also a giant step towards creating an elected House of Lords”, quoting Paul Stone, Senior Partner with DLA Piper.
The BBC has footage of the swearing in of the Justices along with a short interview with Lord Phillips