Day 3: China-rific!

Today we toured the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court.

Here is the front of the building. 

Here is me sitting at one of the judges chairs. (Just not the middle one. It was a big deal not to sit in the middle chair)

It was pretty awesome. As you can see in a video I made today, the Supreme Court is located next to many of the famous icons of London- Ben Big, Westminster Abby, London Eye, etc. The UK Supreme Court is just like everything else criminal justice related- similar to the United States in ways but different too. Americans get grief from the British about being a ‘baby’ of a country because of our short history compared to their’s, well we can say the same thing about their Supreme Court. While ours has been around since 1789, their Supreme Court was established in 2009. Our tour guide joked with us that it took that long for someone to realize that the Judiciary and Parliament should be separated. You know, that whole checks and balances thing. Before the Supreme Court, appeals were decided by the House of Lords.

Some of the major differences between the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.K. are that, understandably because it is newly founded, the U.K. court is very modern. They announce their judgments through Twitter and Facebook, sessions are always freely accessible for public and also available through webcam, and their judges do not wear wigs or gowns. Our own Supreme Court is still very traditional, with basically no public access, especially while in session with a case. We got to view a few minutes of a case going on today, I did not know what was being argued but the person speaking to the judges basically got his butt handed to him verbally. It was a little humorous to see a judge, who in America always remains high and respectable, go down to the defendants level and basically tell him he is stupid.

The Supreme Court judges retire at 70 and are appointed. They choose their cases from what makes it through the court of appeals, and they receive about 250, accepting about 80 each year. It typically takes between 8-12 weeks for the court to make a decision on the case, which is usually much faster than our Supreme Court. Also, the number of judges that decide a case differs whereas our Supreme Court always has a fixed number. The U.K. will assign more judges to more controversial cases.

This is the carpet pattern in the court. Sir Peter Blake created it, who is famous here and created one of the Beatles album covers. It shows a rose representing England, a leek representing Wales, a flax representing Northern Ireland, and thistles representing Scotland. I guess this was controversial because everybody hates leeks and Wales instead wanted to have a daffodil. But oh well. 

I had a video to put here. But the internet SUCKS and the little shop I am sitting in is closing and the lady is starting to stare at me so I am going to upload it later. 

After our tour of Supreme Court, I visited Westminster Abby with some friends. WOW. That’s all I have to say. Everyone needs to go there. First of all there are more dead people buried there than most cemeteries, basically all of them being royal. At Windsor castle I had the feeling of awe wondering about how people centuries ago could build such beautiful, strong buildings. Well let me tell you, that feeling is nothing compared to what I felt at Westminster. The ceilings are SO incredibly high, and vaulted and designed so beautifully. The floor is marble, and everything inside is just breathtaking. 

Stole this from the Internet

I HATE that I can’t take picture because I know everyone reading this just thinks “oh, that sounds cool.” No. It was AMAZING. So incredibly huge. It is a living church, meaning there are sessions everyday. I was there when they did the noon prayer and moment of silence over noon. Very cool to see. I also lit one of the candles  at the alter (don’t worry it was allowed). I found some cool stuff at the gift shop, and my group set out for some Chinese food.

But Chinese food was not enough. I needed China town. So a quick stop on the tube and there we were. 

Chinatowns arch

We explored Chinatown for a while and came across a small mall. I had to go to the bathroom. But the only one within like 10 blocks (Literally, no joke) was this one that charged 1 pound. Just thought I would put this up there so all you back home can enjoy your free bathroom rights. 

Oh, and I know I am going to get a lot of crap (pun) back home from posting so many toilet pictures, but they just amaze me. 

This is am average modern toilet. I am not sure how to say this gracefully.... The small button is for small things, the big button is for big things... If you don't understand then google it.