ABSTRACT
After a long and distinguished career as a civil servant, including an extended period in the Lord Chancellor's Department, Jenny Rowe CB became the first Chief Executive of the UK Supreme Court in 2008. The Chief Executive has a statutory duty to run 'an efficient and effective administration', under the direction of the Court's President and Deputy President and including oversight of the Court's annual budget. When the author took up his appointment as Chief Executive of the UK Supreme Court in May 2008, the issue of appointments to the Supreme Court did not feature in his thinking at all. Indeed he do not recall any mention of the appointment process, and a role for the Chief Executive, in the recruitment material for his post. The Act sets out a broad framework and some very specific requirements, including consultation with all the senior judiciary and politicians around the UK, and requirements such as selection must be on merit.
