Unlike in America, Britain’s Supreme Court cannot strike down primary legislation, so it has a limited role in deciding questions such as abortion or free speech. But its short history shows how much it matters
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThe case was part of a trend of lobbyists turning to the courts after failing to get their way through politics, he remarked in his judgment, which found that the generosity of welfare systems is a question for lawmakers alone.
That has made Britain’s most senior judges bolder and more independent-minded, argues Charles Falconer, a former justice secretary who designed the overhaul. “In the old days you would see the Law Lords hanging around the chamber, and eating in the Lords’ dining room, and they’d be picking up currents which they’d reflect quite frequently in the way they dealt with public law.”
Talk of reviews and name changes has subsided at the same time as the court has taken a more restrained approach. “The idea that we have gone soft on the government or we are reluctant to find against the government is completely without foundation,” remarked Lord Reed recently. But he added: “What has been perhaps more evident in our judgments is greater respect for the separation of powers.”
Views differ on what is happening. Conor Gearty, an academic and human-rights barrister, points to a change in leadership. On this view, judges such as Lady Hale took a more flexible and imaginative approach, taking into account the life experiences of litigants and the good of society. Mr Gearty sees the court under Lord Reed as taking a more old-fashioned, “formalistic” approach, focused on narrow legal questions.
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