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Lords of Appeal in Ordinary

My Lords, I pay tribute to the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, and to the judicial work of the House of Lords, on this historic day when we mark the move by the Law Lords from this House. This is a significant day for this House, and a sad one too, but it is also an important day for British justice, for the British justice system, and for this country: its history and its future. It is significant because the move of the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary from the Palace of Westminster brings to an end a hugely important part of this House’s history and role: the judicial work of this House. It is sad for the same reason, of course: because this House will lose the advantages of having in and around the House people of such calibre as the current 12 Lords of Appeal in Ordinary and their predecessors, who are still in the House. It is, however, enormously important because of what they are going from this House to be: the first 12 Justices of the new United Kingdom Supreme Court—the new apex of the British justice system. It is inevitably also a day not without its controversy. I know that there are people, in this House and beyond, who still disagree with the changes to our constitution which we as a Government made in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, including establishing for the first time in this country an institution that most democracies have seen for decades, and longer, as a fundamental part of their constitutional arrangements: a Supreme Court. However, now is not the time to revisit these controversies; now is the time to celebrate the Law Lords for their contribution to this House, to the law and to this country, to thank them for their service and to wish them well in their future role. By my calculation, there have been a total of 117 Lords of Appeal in Ordinary since the first two Law Lords, Lord Blackburn and Lord Gordon, were appointed in 1876 following the passing of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act in that same year. Since then, the Law Lords have been dispensing justice as the highest court in the land, right up until this present day. Of course, the judicial history of the House of Lords, rather than the Law Lords, goes back a great deal further than the 1876 Act, stretching back to the early Middle Ages and through such great landmark cases as Thomas Skinner and the East India Company in 1666 and Shirley and Fagg in 1675. Both cases marked crises between this House and the House of Commons which dwarfed the controversies with which this House has been dealing over the past few days with the Parliamentary Standards Bill. Interestingly, our own legislative and constitutional changes in the 2005 Act, which led directly to the departure of the Law Lords from this House, had their precursors. In 1834, the great reforming Lord Chancellor, Lord Brougham, introduced a Bill which would have separated his legal and political roles so that the head of the judiciary would not also be the Speaker of this House—precisely the reform we enacted 171 years later. In 1869, the Royal Commission on the Judicature proposed the establishment of a Supreme Court—precisely the reform we enacted a mere 136 years after that. It was that proposal which, after a slight slip between cup and lip as Gladstone’s Government fell in 1874, led eventually not to a Supreme Court but to the 1876 Act establishing the Law Lords. I would hesitate before describing the long and illustrious history of the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary of the House of Lords as a 133-year-long detour, but it seems somehow fitting that we should now, finally, see the establishment of a Supreme Court. The current Law Lords will not be far away from this House. The new Supreme Court’s home is in the refurbished Middlesex Guildhall just across Parliament Square and we hope to see the new Justices of the Supreme Court as visitors to this House as often as they wish. In addition, the Lord Chairman of Committees will seek your Lordships’ agreement a little later this morning to a report from the House Committee which will enable the Justices of the Supreme Court to make use of the facilities of this House. I am sure that noble Lords will wish to support this Motion. I am sure too that the House will join me in thanking the staff of the Judicial Office and the Ministry of Justice who have worked so hard to ensure a seamless transition between the jurisdiction of the House of Lords and that of the Supreme Court. Many of the staff of the Judicial Office will transfer to the Supreme Court. I thank them for all that they have done and wish them well for the future. Of course, when noble and learned Lords retire from the Supreme Court they will be able to play an active part in this House on their retirement and I know the House will want to join me in expressing the hope that they do. While in recent years the Law Lords have exercised much less often their right to take an active part in the legislating and debating functions of this House, they have often played an active role behind the scenes. I know that the House will again want to join me in thanking them for their work as successive chairmen of Sub-Committee E on Law and Institutions of your Lordships’ European Union Committee. I pay tribute too to the work of successive Law Lords as chairmen of the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills doing demanding and very important parliamentary work. The Law Lords’ recent reticence about taking part in the House’s legislative business is matched by the fact that no Member of this House who is not a Law Lord would dream of taking part in the House’s judicial business. It was not always so. When the Duke of Buccleuch was Lord President of the Council in the 1840s, he was asked to sit on an appeal from India, which was estimated to last for 11 days. He hesitated, both because of the length of the appeal and because he was utterly unqualified to sit and take the case. "Don’t worry your Grace," he was told, "The natives of India would much prefer their case to be decided by a great Scottish Duke than by a common lawyer." Uncommon lawyers the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary have certainly been. It would be invidious to single out the contributions made by particular individuals since 1876, but perhaps I may crave the House’s indulgence and break that rule immediately in relation to the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Hale of Richmond, who in 2004 became the first ever female Law Lord, and I pay tribute to her in that role. In conclusion, I pay tribute too to all noble and learned Lords who have served, to the work they have done, to the contribution they have made to the development of British and Commonwealth law, and indeed to international law beyond that. It has been remarkable—for this House, for this country, and for justice. The new Supreme Court will, I am sure, be equally influential. It will be more accessible and transparent. Its role will be clearer to the public. Its establishment will mark a proper separation of powers between the legislature and the judiciary. If, in relation to the 12 noble and learned Lords who are the present and the last Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, the Supreme Court’s gain is this House’s loss, then the Supreme Court will be as fortunate a place as your Lordships’ House has been in these past 133 years. If the judicial role of this House in the past has been illustrious, as is unquestionably the case, I am sure that so too will be the future of the Supreme Court as the pinnacle of the United Kingdom’s system of justice. I beg to move.