Students from RHUL Department of Law and Criminology visited the Supreme Court, toured the building, and met Lord Reed, who kindly spoke about his experience as a Supreme Court Judge.

Student Visit To Supreme Court

On November 6, 2019, 22 students from across the Department of Law and Criminology travelled to Parliament Square to visit the Supreme Court. Dr David Yuratich, programme lead for LLB Law and LLB Law (Senior Status) arranged a tour of the Court and a question and answer session with Deputy President of the Supreme Court, Lord Reed.

Students visited Court 2 and listened to Supreme Court staff member Simon Jolliffe speak about the history of the Supreme Court and the building itself, a Grade II* Listed building which formerly housed Middlesex Guildhall. Trivia ranged from the design of the curtains to the specifics of Supreme Court decisions, and students debated the merits of Asher v Lee, R v Jogee, and other famous cases. An opportunity for photos followed, before students continued down to Court 3, where the Privy Council sits, and explored the exhibition space in the building.

Lord Reed kindly spoke to the students for thirty minutes, engaging in a question and answer session ranging from the selection of Supreme Court panels (5, 7, 9, or 11 justices?) to courtroom blunders. Staff and students were delighted with his thoughtful and insightful responses.

Several students then continued upstairs to listen to the arguments in the case being heard that day – WM Morrison v Various Claimants. Of particular interest to second year law students it concerns vicarious liability.

Students expressed their gratitude to Dr Yuratich for organizing the visit, and to Lord Reed for giving his time to speak to them. The Supreme Court organizes free visits for Schools, Colleges and Universities. For more see here.

The only disappointment of the day was that Dr Yuratich’s ‘Legal Landmarks; videos were not on display, but thankfully they can be viewed here.