I offer only one bite of internet sausage links this morning (I sneezed on the rest of the sausage, so — like a typical cheap breakfast place — I just cut that part off and kept it for a casserole), and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the sexual proclivities of New York-based talkshow hosts: One American export that seems to be doing especially well is, well, the legal system. Those who think we're a "litigious society" (said with a sneer, usually while making a reservation at an exclusive restaurant for a meal costing a week's wages for the people who actually serve it) think that's a bad thing; I ask them to consider the alternatives for a moment, which usually involve bloodshed... In any event, the United Kingdom has just opened its new Supreme Court — a successor of sort to the Law Lords — with some interesting timing: The same time as the US Supreme Court opens its 2009 Term of Court.
The UK Supreme Court is going to make mistakes. All courts and legal systems make mistakes... at a rate slightly less than that of democratic political systems and substantially less than that of theocracies and other totalitarian political systems (or, for that matter, religious hierarchies). What's important here is that — for the first time — the UK will have a court system that is not supervised by the legislative and/or executive branch(es) of government.