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MAKING HISTORY AND FUTURE

  • On 01.10.2009 a legend is being sent to history- the House of Lords of the British parliament ceases to function as the supreme jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. Thus a great chapter in the records of British justice is being closed which was opened by the Appellate Jurisdiction Acts in 1876 and 1888. On 12.06.2003 the then Prime Minister announced the government’s intention to remove the jurisdiction of the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords and transfer it to a new Supreme Court for the United Kingdom. This was established by Part III of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
  • The main argument for this profound change is that the upper chamber of British parliament as a legislature institution should not exercise supreme justice because it contradicts the principle for separation of powers. It has been stated that the transfer of these judicial functions to the new institution will not change their substance. The law enters into force on 01.10.2009 (the official start of the Legal year) since this is the deadline for renovation of the premises of the new Supreme Court- Middlesex Guildhall on London’s Parliament Square, opposite the Houses of Parliament, alongside Westminster Abbey and out of Westminster Palace. The court will have 12 justices (first the acting Lords of Appeal) with a senior Law Lord (currently Lord Phillips) as president. Subsequent appointments to the Supreme court will not receive peerages, nor will they become members of the House of Lords.
  • Royal approval has been granted to the emblem of the new Supreme court containing the four heraldic elements of the three subordinate jurisdictions of the United Kingdom: rose and leaves of leek for England and Wales, the thistle for Scotland and the flax plant for Northern Ireland. They are conjoined with a Libra, symbolising the scale of justice and Omega, symbolising finality.
  • The legal community sends a respectful and grateful farewell to the achievements of the “Lords of Law” and expects nothing less from the future Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

June 2009

Braykov’s Legal Office