Commentary on Sections Schedule 11: Renaming of Supreme Courts for England and Wales and Northern Ireland
206.Schedule 11 works in conjunction with section 59 to give effect to the renaming of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and the Supreme Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland. Schedule 11 provides for direct textual amendments of the numerous references in other legislation to one or other of the existing Supreme Courts.
207.Part 1 re-titles the Supreme Court Act 1981, Supreme Court (Offices) Act 1997, the Rules of the Supreme Court (Northern Ireland) 1980 and the Rules of the Supreme Court (Northern Ireland) (Revision) 1980, and provides for references to those enactments wherever they occur in any other enactment to be changed to references to those enactments as retitled.
208.Part 2 covers the vast majority of the legislation which refers to the Supreme Court of England and Wales: paragraph 4 lists legislation in which the only references needing amendment are simply to “the Supreme Court”, and provides for all those references to be changed to references to “the Senior Courts”.
209.Part 3 corresponds to Part 2: Paragraph 5 provides for references to a person being required to be a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Northern Ireland (which constitute the majority of references in UK legislation to the Supreme Court of Northern Ireland) to be replaced by references to a solicitor of the Court of Judicature; and paragraph 6 covers, in the same way as paragraph 4, legislation which refers to the Supreme Court of Northern Ireland.
210.Part 4 deals with references in other legislation which require more tailored amendment. Of particular importance are the amendments made to the Interpretation Act 1978 by paragraph 18 of the Schedule. The definition of “Supreme Court” in Schedule 1 to the 1978 Act is amended so that “Supreme Court” is defined as the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and will have that meaning wherever it appears in the statute book unless a contrary intention appears. In addition, the existing entries defining “Supreme Court” are replaced by entries defining “Senior Courts” and “Court of Judicature” respectively.