International Law

Today the law lords sit to give judgment for the last time in the House of Lords and, as Lord Hope of Craighead said there last week, the upper chamber will be ?losing part of itself?. From October the law lords will become Justices of the Supreme Court, created under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. As the law lords give judgments for the last time, we should celebrate the institution whose life is coming to an end.

...The cry of the doorkeepers, John Dryden and Jackie Mouzouros, of ?Clear the Bar?, so the law lords can deliberate at the end of the argument, will be heard no more. The Bar and the judges will be cleared out across Parliament Square to the Supreme Court.

As Lord Mance described it, in one of the final speeches by a law lord in Parliament, they will be moving from the Palace of Westminster to the new ?Palais de Justice?. But before we lawyers pick up our papers and leave, we should pause to reflect on the end of an era.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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