UK Supreme Court judges sworn in

[Libertas1776]

Source: BBC

The highest court in the United Kingdom has been formally opened, with the swearing in of its 11 justices in a ceremony in London.
The Supreme Court, housed at Middlesex Guildhall, replaces the Law Lords as the last court of appeal in all matters other than criminal cases in Scotland.
The court is independent of Parliament and will hear the most important cases.
<snip>
Lord Phillips, President of the Supreme Court, said the change in form was important for judicial openness.
The judicial function of the House of Lords, whose powers had evolved over centuries, ended with the swearing in of Lord Phillips.
<snip>
Lord Phillips said: "This is the last step in the separation of powers in this country. We have come to it fairly gently and gradually, but we have come to the point where the judges are completely separated from the legislature and executive.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8283939.stm

---

[24601]

1. Are they reviewing the Queen's election for validity? n/t

[Hosnon]

2. Can you (or anyone) give me a quick rundown of how this is different?

I don't know much about how the various branches are set up in the UK.

Thanks!

[Libertas1776]

3. Prior to the establishment of this court

the highest court in the land (The rough equivalent of our Supreme Court) was the House of Lords, of which a number of so called Law Lords would act as judges. Of course, in recent years as the power of the House of Lords has greatly waned, there was growing concern of the muddling of the separation of powers what with a legislative branch also acting as a judiciary. So, a few years ago, a major constitutional change was made, and a wholly separate court was established, which has begun work today.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Practically, there may not be much difference

The 'Law Lords' were senior judges who were made Lords so they could fulfill the function of being the highest appeal court. The same people will now be the 'Supreme Court'. It means that new appointments to it won't get the right to vote on legislation in the House of Lords as they did before; but how much they actually used that right in the House of Lords, I'm not sure - I think by convention they didn't vote on any matter that was seen as 'party political'.

So this makes the separation of the judicial and legislative branches formal in Britain, whereas before they were linked in theory, but pretty separate in practice.