Lord Rodger Memorial Lecture by Lord Neuberger PSC

The President of the Supreme Court, Lord Neuberger, delivered the Lord Rodger Memorial Lecture  in Glasgow in which he talks about the tole of the Supreme Court of the UK in relation to devolution in the UK.

Lord Neuberger gives the Lord Rodger Memorial Lecture 2016 in Glasgow

Power is devolved in the UK to Scotland and to Northern Ireland and Wales.  In each case the model of distribution is different with the result that the overall patchwork is very complex.  Lord Neuberger says (para 42) - " ... if we are not to adopt a written constitution, then there is a strong case for saying it would be necessary to consider a more coherent and principled approach to devolution across the UK" and the speech then refers to a "good starting point" - the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution report of May 2016 - The Union and Devolution.

Lord Neuberger ended by saying that " ... the growth of constitutional cases does not justify the expense and confusion of creating a new Constitutional Court ...."  Readers will recall that this was an idea mooted by David Cameron when he was Prime Minister - previous post 8th February 2016.