Day 9 all about the law

Today it was all about the British legal system. We started off at the U.K. Supreme Court. Now a Supreme Court is something relatively new for the U.K. How young? It was made in 2009….A.D., it is 5 years old. Until then the highest court was ran by Parliament, if I remember right, it was House of Lords. So, in the current Supreme Court, they reside over all 4 nations in the U.K. in civil cases, and over 3 of the 4 in criminal cases (not Scotland since they already had one). Anyway, so we looked at two of their courtrooms, where we were briefed in most aspects of the U.K’s highest court. We then went into their Commonwealth’s Supreme Court room. Here they have cases from all of their commonwealth nations, which include countries like Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.  Then we went up to check out a Supreme Court case.

After a break we then started with what we call the London Legal Walk through what they call Legal London. We started at an Appellate Court. We again got briefed on what happened, with the back drop of judges and baron (upper level lawyers instead if solicitors, long explanation) walking by in robes and wigs. Yes, they still do that.  We then split up and checked out different cases in progress. This is keeping in mind cases go in order of magistrate/ crown court-appellate- supreme court. To continue the walk from there, we then visited the four inns. This is where all U.K. barons get their training. Again, it was a legal walk, so all four of them are within walking distance, within London.