Judicial Functions Of The House Of Lords
The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, historically also had a judicial function. It functioned as a court of first instance for the trials of peers, for impeachment cases, and as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. In the latter case the House's jurisdiction was essentially limited to the hearing of appeals from the lower courts. Appeals were technically not to the House of Lords, but rather to the Queen-in-Parliament. By constitutional convention, only those lords who were legally qualified (Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, or Law Lords) heard the appeals, since World War II usually in what was known as the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords rather than in the chamber of the House.
During the 20th and early 21st centuries, the judicial functions were gradually removed. The final trial of a peer in the House of Lords was in 1935, and in 1948, the use of special courts for trials of peers was abolished. In 2009 the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom assumed the functions as the new court of final resort in the UK.
Read more about Judicial Functions Of The House Of Lords: Reform, In Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words judicial, functions, house and/or lords:
“Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (18051859)
“Let us stop being afraid. Of our own thoughts, our own minds. Of madness, our own or others. Stop being afraid of the mind itself, its astonishing functions and fandangos, its complications and simplifications, the wonderful operation of its machinerymore wonderful because it is not machinery at all or predictable.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“Ladies and gents. The time has passed. The time has passed. Got to be a better way. I say to you, cant any longer, oh no, cant any longer, play off black against old, young against poor.
This country cannot house its houseless. Feed its foodless. Theyre demanding a government of the people. Peopled by people. Our faith. Our compassion. Our courage on the gridiron. The basic
indifference that made this country great.”
—Jeremy Larner, U.S. screenwriter, and Michael Ritchie. Bill McKay (Robert Redford)
“O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark,
The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant,
The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters,
The generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers,
Distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees,
Industrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark....”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)