Supreme court appeal

The creation of a single 'supreme' court for the UK, with solicitor law lords, is one option to reform the House of Lords and Privy Council, which have in some ways changed little since the 19th century, according to a report this week.The report on the future of the court system by the constitution unit at University College London, said: 'The law lords are widely regarded as carrying out their judicial functions well, but their continued involvement in the legislative work of the House of Lords is likely to create constitutional difficulties in the future.

Change will come.'This may be instigated either willingly by a 'new and more reform-minded Lord Chancellor' or unwillingly through a challenge under the fair trial provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights.Among the alternatives are a specialist constitutional court to deal with human rights, devolution and other public law appeals, and a 'court of justice' to which the appeal courts in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland could refer questions of law.

Those courts would become the final courts of appeal within their legal systems.The authors also said that while there is no doubting the excellence of the law lords as judges, 'there will in future be increasing pressure for the appointment of law lords from a wider range of backgrounds'.

This could include practising barristers and solicitors, and academic lawyers, it said, as happens in other Commonwealth countries.Last week, the senior law lord, Lord Bingham, told The Times: 'I think there is a very strong case for having a Supreme Court that is in the same position constitutionally as the supreme courts of every other country in the world.' Andrew Towler