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The House of Lords sat for the last time yesterday in its judicial capacity with a hearing in the Chamber of the joined appeals in BA (Nigeria) and PE (Cameroon). Seven judgments were delivered including the widely publicised decision in the “right to die” case of R (Purdy) v DPP.
The end of the House of Lords’ judicial role has produced wide ranging media comment. Writing in the Law Society Gazette, under the headline “Law Lords sit for the last time before moving to the Supreme Court”, Joshua Rozenberg again suggests that everyone is going to continue to refer to the new Justices of the Supreme Court as “law lords” – with new members perhaps being given the courtesy title of “Lord” (like judges of the Court of Session in Scotland). BBC News gave a “Potted history of the Law Lords”. Politics.co.uk offered a “timeline” for Lords Reforms. There is another historical survey in Business Day.
In the Guardian under the headline “It took 142 years, but at last Bagehot has got his way”, Martin Kettle describes the removal of the judges from Parliament as a “victory for liberty and the law”. In the Independent Andy McSmith goes back to the seventeenth century, recalling the first time that the Lords became involved in legal disputes.
Our attention has been drawn to an interesting appearance on You Tube by Lord Mance, explaining the transition from the House of Lords to the Supreme Court