Branding justice - the long and winding road to the UK Supreme Court

Wrenched from the House of Lords amid a political coup, the UK's Supreme Court has endured an eventful three years. Suzanna Ring and Alex Novarese recount the Court's history, the attempts to create a clear identity and assess its successes and failures

It was Thursday 12 June 2003. The most senior judges of England and Wales and members of the Lord Chancellor's Department had escaped London for the Cotswolds – Minster Lovell, to be exact – for a strategic discussion about the administration of justice at the suggestion of then Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips (pictured, right).

As the group sat down to begin discussions, word arrived from Downing Street: the role of the Lord Chancellor was set to be abolished, a Judicial Appointments Commission was to be set up and the Law Lords were to be removed from the House of Lords and refashioned as a Supreme Court.