Vivien Rose shares insights into Supreme Court role
Newnham College Honorary Fellow Vivien Rose shared insights into her role as a Supreme Court justice this week, explaining when the court is asked to step in and outlining a few illuminating cases.
The Rt Hon Lady Rose of Colmworth, was addressing a joint meeting of Seville Law Society and Cambridge University Law Society. The former is Newnham’s law society for students and aspiring lawyers, which provides events for members to learn more about and apply to the legal profession.
Lady Rose is one of 12 Justices of the UK Supreme Court, which celebrated its 15th anniversary last year. The court agrees to hear cases, she explained, of great legal or constitutional importance where there is “an arguable point of law of general public importance”. There are no public witnesses, the justices instead considering written and oral submissions of legal argument.
She gave many examples including a hearing referred to it from Northern Ireland concerning whether Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights obliged the Government to investigate the death of Sean Dalton in a bombing attack. In that case the court ruled the killing had taken place too many years before the Human Rights Act came into force.
The Supreme Court ruled the Scottish Government could not hold an ‘advisory’ second independence referendum "because of the political complications such a vote could lead to". The Court also considered the rights of 'gig economy' workers and ruled that Uber drivers are to be considered employees but not Deliveroo drivers. More details on all these cases can be found on the Supreme Court website, which also livestreams hearings.
The Court is now preparing for new cases they will have to consider after Brexit, on where we depart from European Union law. Supreme Court judges also sit as members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which serves as the court of final appeal for many Commonwealth countries.
Lady Rose also gave an insight into her working life, revealing that she prepares ‘bits’ to be part of her final written judgement as she goes along, as it would be near impossible otherwise to capture the intricacies of hearings which can last many weeks.
She read law at Newnham College (NC 1979) and was called to the Bar in 1984, before joining the Government Legal Service 12 years later. She was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2021, becoming the fourth woman to be appointed in the Court’s history, and the first Newnham alumna.
UK Supreme Court photograph courtesy, used under Creative Commons licence, is by M. Zhu NMOS332 via Wikimedia Commons. Lady Rose photograph by Newnham College staff