Judgment days are history in the making in birthplace of law and order

IT IS the final civil Court of Appeal in the UK, where some of the greatest legal minds help set the course of law from the legal chambers of the former Middlesex Guildhall in London.

But Scots are the first to have the chance to see the machinery of the Supreme Court outside ts Parliament Square base, with a series of sittings in Edinburgh this week.

As it moves to take its workings to more of the public, the court is also increasing its social media presence and is documenting the historic hearings this week using Instagram as an educational tool, also meant to “provide a window into the life of the Supreme Court beyond the courtroom”.

However, about 50 people took the chance to view proceedings closer to home. The makeshift courtroom in Edinburgh City Council’s main council chamber is usually the bustling centre of the local government administration.

This time it was witness to the intricacies of law and of two people’s personal struggle.

The first of several cases Lord Neuberger, Lady Hale, Lord

Kerr, Lord Clarke and Lord Reed will hear over four days involves a couple stopped from entering into an alleged “sham” marriage.

Lawyers appealed for Violeta Sadovska, a Lithuanian, and Saleem Malik, a Pakistani national, who had arrived in the UK on a student visa in 2011 which expired two years later. Immigration officials had stopped their marriage in Edinburgh in April 2014. Before adjourning the justices said they will give their finding at a later date.

As the case opened in the 250-year-old main council chamber, which overlooks the city and sits a stone’s throw from Edinburgh’s Parliament Square appeal and high courts, Lord Neuberger, the President of the UK Supreme Court, said “it is right to record this is a historic occasion”. He said the move “enables us to underline the role of the court in serving the people and communities of every part of the United Kingdom”.

Frank Ross, Edinburgh City Council Lord Provost, said: “As the birthplace of Scots law and order and now home to hundreds of legal workers, students and professors from all over the world, Edinburgh is a natural setting for the Supreme Court. This is a historic occasion.”