Brice Dickson casts an eye over events at the Supreme Court in 2012
Only 10 Supreme Court justices were in post by the end of 2011. Lords Sumption and Reed did not officially take up their positions until January 2012. In April, when Lord Brown retired, he was replaced by Lord Carnwath. The court’s first president, Lord Phillips, also retired at the end of September and was replaced by Lord Neuberger, whose previous role as Master of the Rolls was in turn filled by a Supreme Court justice, Lord Dyson, thereby creating a further vacancy on the Supreme Court.
At the end of 2012 Lord Dyson’s seat remained unfilled, and a selection commission was looking not just for his replacement but also for the two justices who will replace Lords Walker and Hope when they retire in, respectively, March and June 2013. Once those positions are filled there may not be another vacancy on the court until the retirement of Lord Neuberger in 2018.
Productivity
There were 61 sets of judgments issued by the Supreme Court during 2012 (compared with 60 in 2011). They
