SCOTLAND’S most senior judge and the legal system he oversees will arguably be the biggest beneficiaries when the UK Supreme Court decamps from London to Edinburgh for four days in June.

As Lord President of the Court of Session, Lord Carloway heads the judiciary in Scotland and as such has authority over all cases that go through the Scottish courts.

When the Supreme Court travels north he will line up alongside five of its justices to give his judgment on at least one appeal, giving him a say in what he termed “the final court of appeal in the UK for civil cases”.

A spokesman for the Supreme Court confirmed that Lord Carloway, who will hear at least one appeal during the visit, “will take a full part in any appeal upon which he sits and will therefore be involved in preparing the judgment for those cases”.

This is significant not only because the process for gaining a seat on the Supreme Court - the highest court in the land - is particularly stringent, but because of the 11 justices currently on the bench just two - Lords Reed and Hodge - are Scottish.

Notably, while the listings for the visit have yet to be drawn up, it is expected that the appeals being heard will originate from all of the court’s jurisdictions, not just Scotland.

But it is not just for the benefit of Lord Carloway that the justices are making the visit, with Supreme Court president Lord Neuberger noting that one of the court’s main priorities is to make proceedings accessible to as many people from around the country as possible.

Indeed, one of the key reasons for the court being established was that its predecessor as the UK’s court of final appeal, the House of Lords, was not easy for the public at large to gain access to.

Since opening in 2009 the Supreme Court building in London’s Parliament Square has received around 100,000 visitors every year, with around 15,000 people a month tuning in to online broadcasts of its hearings.

“We make every effort to ensure our proceedings are accessible throughout the UK via our free live streaming service,” Lord Neuberger said. “However, nothing beats being able to observe courts at first hand.”

This is a view shared by both the Scottish Government and the Faculty of Advocates, with a spokesman for the former saying that it “welcomes the Supreme Court’s efforts to make its hearings and business visible and accessible to users and the public”.

Faculty Dean Gordon Jackson QC, meanwhile, said he hoped that “this visit will help give the people of Scotland a better understanding of the important role this court has”.

Professor Alan Paterson of Strathclyde Law School, whose book Final Judgement: The Last Law Lords and the Supreme Court is an authority on the subject, said it is “a good move” for the court to visit the nations it has jurisdiction over, if for no other reason than to draw the public’s attention to the fact that it serves all parts of the UK.

“The Supreme Court is a UK court but it has never sat outside London before,” he said.

“It is excellent that it is now doing so and it is excellent that it has chosen Scotland to be first.

“This court has put a huge amount of effort into being open and engaging the wider communities in the different jurisdictions.

“It brings it to the attention of the wider public that we send our civil appeals down to the Supreme Court and it gives a chance to see the Supreme Court in action.”

Despite this, Strathclyde Law School head Professor Nicole Busby warned that there is only so much that can be achieved during a four-day visit, especially as Edinburgh City Chambers, where the hearings will take place, has a limited capacity.

“It makes it more accessible but it’s limited what you’re going to see in four days and not everyone will fit in,” she said.

“It’s paying lip service to accessibility but it won’t really do very much in the long term. I don’t know how you overcome that.”