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02/2013 - News release
Court on camera: judgment summaries on demand
21 January 2013
Summaries of the decisions of the UK's highest court will be made available to view on demand from this week, in the Supreme Court's latest initiative to help make its work as accessible as possible.
Video of the five-minute summary given by the lead Justice in each appeal as they deliver their judgment will now be posted on the popular video-sharing website YouTube shortly after delivery in court. The move follows the success of the Court's live web streaming of proceedings provided in partnership with Sky News.
The judgments published this Wednesday morning - in the cases of R (on the application of Prudential plc) v Special Commissioner of Income Tax; Zakrzewski v The Regional Court in Lodz, Poland; and Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland v Lloyds Banking Group - will be uploaded to a dedicated Supreme Court YouTube channel on www.youtube.com/uksupremecourt by lunchtime on the same day. These films will join the back catalogue of 25 judgments from the last legal term (October - December 2012) made public today.
The brief summaries, written by the Justices themselves, have been delivered in court since the Supreme Court opened in 2009. These replaced the previous practice when the judges sat as judicial members of the House of Lords, where they delivered their decisions as speeches in special sittings of the House.
The Justices' summaries aim to explain briefly the background to the appeal in hand, the decision the court has reached, and the reasons for that decision. They will now be available online for law students, professionals and anyone interested in the outcome of an appeal to watch at their convenience.
Lord Neuberger, President of the Supreme Court, said: "Demand for our live web stream of proceedings has far outstripped our expectations. Around 20,000 people watch each month. Making our judgment summaries available as a video archive seemed the obvious next step.
"We hope this new service will open up another window on our work and the reasoning behind our decisions, and broaden our audience."
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Notes
Due to the length of Supreme Court hearings and the additional technical resources needed to make these available online in a similar way, there are no immediate plans to archive entire appeal hearings, though demand for the new service will be closely monitored.
The Supreme Court's broadcasting services are provided by proAV (www.proav.com), a UK firm which will also produce the films for the Court's YouTube channel.
UKSC contact
Ben Wilson - Head of Communications
020 7960 1887