Senior judge hits out at UK court’s intervention

Allowing the UK Supreme Court to overturn the decisions of Scottish judges is “constitutionally inept” and “egregious nonsense”, according to the head of an independent legal review group.

Lord McCluskey appeared before Holyrood’s justice committee yesterday on behalf of the independent review group examining the jurisdictions of the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland and the UK Supreme Court, which he chaired.

The group was convened by the Scottish Government after the Supreme Court ruled that two Scottish convictions were unsafe.

Lord McCluskey said the Supreme Court should not be able to intervene in Scotland without leave from the High Court.

He said if the UK government ignored these proposals “we would be left with a system which the Lord Advocate properly described as constitutionally inept, and I have described as egregious nonsense”.

“Forgive me for being direct, but there isn’t time to be polite. I’ll just tell the truth.”

Lord McLuskey also criticised the human rights case that kicked off the constitutional row in the first place.