Who gets heard? The permission to appeal decisions of the UK Supreme Court

Start: Oct 11, 2017 12:00 AM 
End: Nov 21, 2017 12:00 AM

Location: UCL Cruciform LT1, Cruciform Building, London WC1E 6BT

Tuesday 21 November 2017, 19:00 - 20:00
UCL Cruciform LT1, Cruciform Building, London WC1E 6BT


Co-sponsored by the UCL Judicial Institute, UCL Centre for Ethics and Law and UCL Faculty of Laws

Speaker: Professor Chris Hanretty (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Chair: Dr Steven Vaughan (University College London)


About the lecture:
This lecture examines the success rates of those seeking permission to appeal to the Supreme Court between 2009 and the summer of 2016. It tests three groups of factors capable of explaining success at this stage of the court’s decision-making process: legal factors (the “arguability” of the case; the importance of the case); organisational factors (the workloads and specialisms of panel members), and political factors (specifically whether governmental actors are seeking permission to appeal). I find that governmental actors are around one and a half times more likely to be granted permission to appeal than are other actors, even when controlling for the arguability of the case and its importance. There is little evidence that panel members’ workloads or specialisms affect the success of applications.

About the speaker:
Chris Hanretty is Professor of Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London. His research interests run from representation and public opinion to judicial and regulatory decision-making. Chris tweets (@chrishanretty) and blogs (medium.com/@chrishanretty/) regularly. He is currently working on a book about decision making on the UK Supreme Court.