The British Govt has lost a number of cases on human rights at the Supreme Court since 9/11, 2001.
Lord Hope: Everyone learns lessons, and the way the system works in this country, and it’s to the credit of everybody, including the Executive, I think that it’s that they respect decisions taken against them. They may not like them, but there they are. One hopes that that process will have, as it were, cleared the way for a future where the Executive is more aware of what can be done and what can not be done, and the way in which it should go about its affairs.
Lord Kerr: We must be a bulwalk against executive decisions which we are convinced infringe, impermissibly, fundamental human rights, and that, I think, is a fundamental precept. It’s importance can’t be overestimated, that the Executive cannot have access to unbridled power.
Lord Hope: We have to fulfill the function we have as the guardians of the rule of law, and if it comes into collision with the political view, then, well, so be it. （太酷了！)
Narrator: The final Court of Appeal had always been independent of the Govt, even when they were sitting in the House of Lords, but this new clear physical separation between Parliament and the Supreme Court adds weight to this vital truth. THOSE WHO MAKE THE LAW SHOULD BE ANSWERABLE TO THE LAW.
Lord Phillips: The rule of law is a principle that applies in all situations. And once you, even if you’re a govt, have signed up to binding legal principles, there has to be somebody who decided whether you’re complying with what you have signed up to or not. And the independence Judiciary are the best body to do that.
PS. 4個Justices都很有趣啊。。。。
Lord Hope：
為什麼當律師？Family tradition, 他的ancestor可以回溯到The Lord Advocate of Kings Charles I。 不過雖然出身律師世家，但在early stage of the Bar他還是didn’t have any money to support himself。他說，還好我被called之後不久就結婚了，我妻子是一位老師， “we had enough to keep going”。都讓我想起Ang Lee了。。。。PS. Lord Hope樣子很萌。。。。
Lord Kerr：
22歲就barrister了。說到為什麼會選law，“I chose law because I didn't want to do art and I probably couldn't have done science, and law seemed the only option.” 好無奈啊。。。。
他的weekend relax routine是從幫他太太做早餐開始的， “I don’t drink tea， I don’t like eggs, I’m afraid I loath Marmite”， 不過呢，我老婆喜歡，我就弄給她好了。。。。做好了還給送到床上去，好老公到爆啊！
Lord Phillips:
70幾歲還騎腳踏車上班; 說到為什麼attracted to law, 他是inspired by a school visitor, "a barrister came to talk to us about the law, it was interesting." 然後在uni裡，他覺得“I enormously enjoyed the academic study of law” 學霸型的嗎？
然後，為什麼選law當career呢？
Lord Phillips doesn't believe morality has anything to do with it. “There were lots of things I thought weren't fair, usually they were respectable decisions that my parents were taking, but I didn't go into the law because I wanted to put right things that were wrong. I went into the law because I thought it looked a very satisfying and interesting way of earning my livelihood.” Super pragmatic的。。。。
Lady Hale:
怎麼說呢，我個人覺得是因為the Court需要一位女性法官她才被選上的，如果忽略gender，她應該不qualified。從prenuptial agreement那個case就可以看得出來，我雖然是女生，但是我是站在male judges那邊的。大家都成年人了，簽了就應該遵守啊，不然就不要簽；最煩那種簽了然後又說自己那時冲昏了頭，沒想清楚，自己是弱者blah，blah，blah的。。。。我可能是sexist (看TG看多了？）。。。。。
Anyways, 她說她上Cambridge的那段很內涵，很好笑。“There were 3 women’s colleges and 21 men’s colleges. That was very nice for us - a great sex ratio and we had a good time.”
