LMH’s first-year Law cohort visited the Supreme Court and Privy Council of the United Kingdom on Tuesday 30th May. Alicia, one of the students who went on the trip, gives us an overview of their visit:
"Our main stop was the Middlesex Guildhall, a building which has been housing the Supreme Court and Privy Council since 2009. The reason for the Court’s relocation from the House of Lords was not only the importance of the separation between the judicial and legislative powers: another frequently overlooked concern, students were told, was the need to improve public access to the UK’s highest court of appeal. It was reportedly quite a troublesome task for citizens who wished to attend proceedings at the House of Lords to find their way through Westminster!
We had the opportunity to sit in the Supreme Court’s two courtrooms and debate a recently argued point of law – is a parent breaking the law by taking their child out of school for a seven-day Disneyland trip? Apparently so. Such a case undoubtedly provided some (memorable) insight into the Court’s daily work.
However, the Supreme Court was not the only legal landmark that the heart of London had to offer. We kicked off our journey in London by walking down High Holborn and into Gray’s Inn, one of the four Inns of Court – every barrister in England and Wales must belong to one. An abundance of red bricks and post-war architecture, alongside a couple of sunlit quads, may remind some of our very own Lady Margaret Hall.
It only took a brief stroll down Chancery Lane and its surroundings to realise the profound impact of the legal world on the neighbourhood – from window displays of wigs and court gowns to the intricately decorated towers of the Royal Courts of Justice.
Overall, this trip was an opportunity to learn about the past and present of our constitutional structures, as well as the legal profession in the UK – which we hope to experience in the future."
