Comment on any aspect of the proceedings, from the physical environment, the reactions of parties, the use of technology, to the role of the UK Supreme Court Justices. How much did they explain matters?  Did the way they discuss the law surprise you?

The Supreme Court criminal appeal cases (from England Wales and Northern Ireland) are now recorded, so that you can watch them via a recording. Follow the guidance notes, and the assessment brief document, to assist you in writing your report.

‘This footage is made available for the sole purpose of the fair and accurate reporting of the judicial proceedings of the Supreme Court. Although you are welcome to view these proceedings, the re-use, capture, re-editing or redistribution of this footage in any form is not permitted. You should be aware that any such use could attract liability for breach of copyright or defamation and, in some circumstances, could constitute a contempt of court.’

Here is the link to the decided case that you must use as the basis for your observations and complete your Supreme Court Report observation assessment.

R v Copeland (AP) (Appellant) – The Supreme Court

You will find, the judgment summary under the tab, ‘Watch Judgment summary’,

The morning and afternoon sessions are available under the tab ‘Watch hearing’ found on the same page. You should watch both morning and afternoon sessions and the judgment summary to get a better idea of the proceedings, and to give you enough material to base your report upon.
Court observation report assessment guidance notes

Ensure that you use the link provided above to the Supreme Court decided criminal appeal case of R v Copeland to watch and base your report upon. This is a criminal appeal case, and therefore based on points of law, it is not a criminal trial.

What are you looking for in your observations?

The purpose of the court observation is to enhance your understanding of the adversarial criminal system of law. As we are currently living under different conditions, the proceedings you are observing are quite different from other adversarial criminal proceedings, such as those heard in the Crown Courts. We will though discuss what happens in these proceedings, during the course.

Getting Started.

Compare your expectations of what the proceedings in The Supreme Court would be like, based on your general experience, the media, and any other appropriate readings, would be a good benchmark.

Ask yourself questions.
What did you find surprising?
What fulfilled your expectations?

Comment on any aspect of the proceedings, from the physical environment, the reactions of parties, the use of technology, to the role of the UK Supreme Court Justices. How much did they explain matters?  Did the way they discuss the law surprise you?

Below are some suggestions that may help inspire you, and that would likely appear in a thorough report.

· You may ONLY report upon the case supplied, reports on any other case will not be marked, nor awarded any marks.

· What might be useful, is noticing how aspects of adversarialism arise. These will be no doubt be limited as you are not observing a criminal trial, but rather a criminal appeal, on technical points of law only.

Note: The Supreme Court, only hears criminal appeals from England, Wales and Northern Ireland, not from Scotland.

· You may choose to include observations on, the architecture, the use of space, the relations between the legal personnel and lay persons (if any), any forms of questioning and the discussions on the points of law.

· Describe what you actually observed, rather than what you think you should have observed!

· Demonstrate reflection, try to make sense of the observations that you report upon.

· The above key characteristics will be supported by your online observations, which are likely to follow these paragraphs; these will backed-up by reflections. The reflection is your ‘evidential’ backing up – you will do that by drawing upon academic articles. In other words, a reflection, is your way of making sense of what you have observed.

You do not need to use academic literature to complete this observation. Using the information about the Supreme Court provided on their website will suffice. Here is a link to where you will find some useful information:  About The Supreme Court – The Supreme Court

Note: The best writing will clearly delineate some specific characteristics of the adversarial system. These will be tested against the observations made in the online Supreme Court case you observe, (but note these will be far less obvious than if you were observing a Crown Court trial, so do not worry), and then backed up by your Supreme Court website (and any additional) reading. The writing will be reasonably reflective and less descriptive, where possible.
Link Again for the case study this report is to be based on – R v Copeland (AP) (Appellant) – The Supreme Court

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