SUPREME COURT AND HOUSE OF LORDS

The Creation of a Supreme Court was an Unnecessary and Overly Expensive Reform. The Appellate Committee of the House of Lords Was Independent, Effective, and was Regarded as One of the Finest Courts in the World



The Creation of a Supreme Court was an Unnecessary and Overly Expensive Reform. The Appellate Committee of the House of Lords Was Independent, Effective, and was Regarded as One of the Finest Courts in the World

Introduction

In UK, Supreme Court now serves as the highest appellate court, by replacing the former Appellate Committee of the House of Lords. The former Middlesex Guildhall is the current sitting of the supreme court of the United Kingdom, which is located on the western side of Parliament Square, facing the Houses of Parliament (the cost of this move was circa $100 million or £60 million). In October 2009, the Supreme Court sat for the first time. The High Court of Justiciary in Scotland continues to have jurisdiction over criminal cases north of the border, though decisions of the Scottish High Court of Justiciary may be appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has also assumed the devolvement of legal power of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Supreme Court, like its predecessor (the House of Lords), has power to declare the law authoritatively for the courts in England and Wales, and in appropriate matters, for other parts of the United Kingdom. The Supreme Court's decisions will be binding on all lowers courts, but the court is not intended to have any different powers than the House of Lords. This study in this connection is going to discuss the statement that the creation of a Supreme Court was an unnecessary and overly expensive reform and the appellate committee of the House of Lords was independent, effective, and was regarded as one of the finest courts in the world.

House of Lords

The upper chamber of Parliament that is subordinate to the elected House of Commons. The House of Lords dates back to Anglo-Saxon times. As the Commons came to be elected by a mass franchise in the nineteenth century, its importance in the constitution diminished, as did respect for its hereditary basis. It was widely portrayed as an anachronism in an increasingly democratic age. Its pro-Conservative leanings proved an obstacle for more radical administrations, Liberal and later Labour. Its composition and powers were reformed in the twentieth century, primarily by the Life Peerages Act (1958), the House of Lords Act (1999) and the two Parliament Acts (1911, 1949). As a result of the 1999 changes the right of most transmissible peers to sit & vote in the House of Lords, its membership was virtually halved from 1,295 to 695 and currently fluctuates around 700, with the two main parties broadly equally represented. Labour has yet to produce a viable scheme for Phase Two that can command substantial agreement between the main political parties. Many MPs favour an elected or predominantly elected house, although several members ...