United Kingdom Supreme Court: Links of Interest

1. The UKSC Blog, created by solicitors and barristers (Olswang and Matrix Law), appears to be an extremely valuable resource for practitioners interested in developments in the UK Supreme Court. It is similar to the SCOTUS blog (US Supreme Court). I strongly recommend the blog to those interested in key developments in the Supreme Court of the UK.

2. Much has been said in India in recent days about judicial accountability; and Lord Phillips of the UK Supreme Court recently delivered an address on the topic from a UK perspective. The address, “Judicial Independence and Accountability: A View from the Supreme Court”, is available here.

3. The United Kingdom Supreme Court recently delivered its decision in Global Process Systems v. Syarikat Takaful Malasia Berhard [2011] UKSC 5. The Court dismissed the appeals from the judgment of the Court of Appeal reported in [2009] EWCA Civ 1398. The case raised interesting questions in the law of marine insurance. In particular, issues relating to causation and “inherent vice” were examined in detail. A summary is available here. The decision is available here. Lords Saville, Mance, Collins and Clark gave detailed (though in substance similar) opinions, and Lord Dyson agreed with the reasons given by all four. All the four detailed opinions contain valuable analysis of the law on the point. The Court has suggested that for an “inherent vice” defence to succeed, the sole cause of the loss must be the vice, and no external element should play a role in the loss (for an explanation of the facts and the decisions, please see this summary). Lord Clarke stated, “…the distinction is between damage caused by any external occurrence and damage resulting solely from the thing itself.” [emphasis mine] Although the Court of Appeal has been affirmed, there may be some changes in the legal tests applied by the two appellate courts. I will examine this in detail subsequently.