The government has announced major steps towards the separation of powers in Britain. The office of Lord Chancellor, which combined executive, legislative and judicial functions, is to be abolished. And a supreme court is to be established outside the legislature.<\/p>\n
The office of Lord Chancellor has existed for 800 years and in other forms for much longer. It has continued in being despite the inroads of democracy into other parts of British government.<\/p>\n
The so-called Lord acted as head of the judiciary and was a senior government minister heading a department of state. He was also “speaker” of the second legislative chamber, the House of Lords, and was entitled to sit as a judge.<\/p>\n
The Lord Chancellor?s responsibilities included the appointment of new judges and senior barristers, known as “QCs”. An independent judicial appointments commission will take over the appointment of judges (none of whom are elected in Britain) when the reforms are implemented, replacing the former secretive system. The future of the wig wearing barristers is to be reviewed.<\/p>\n
A supreme court outside of Parliament will take responsibility for final judicial ruling away from judges who are also legislators. Unlike the US Supreme Court is will not be able to rule on the constitutionality of legislation as Britain has not yet adopted a written constitution and the power of the legislature is still unlimited.<\/p>\n
The replacement of feudal arrangements with more democratic ones was denounced by so-called “Lord” Strathclyde, who leads unelected Conservative legislators in the House of Lords, as “trendy.” Another Conservative legislator-for-life, Cranley Onslow, compared the reforms to the practices of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He characterised the pre-democratic office of Lord Chancellor as a symbol of “liberty.” Commentators from all parties who criticised the sudden nature of the announcement of major reforms without prior debate were on safer ground.<\/p>\n
The reform announcement was marred by the appointment of a legislator-for-life, the so-called Lord Falconer, to be minister in charge of a new Department of Constitutional Affairs.<\/p>\n
Labour government member Derry Irvine, who was dismissed as Lord Chancellor as the reforms were announced, had opposed the reforms, apparently believing the feudal system to be superior to any other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The government has announced major steps towards the separation of powers in Britain. The office of Lord Chancellor, which combined executive, legislative and judicial functions, is to be abolished. And a supreme court is to be established outside the legislature. The office of Lord Chancellor has existed for 800 years and in other forms for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n