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Richard Wallington, Ten Old Square and Chancery Bar Association
Next October (if the building works are finished in time) the Law Lords will move across Parliament Square and become Supreme Court justices.
The ostensible reason for this unnecessary change is the separation of the judiciary from the legislature and from government, but the truth is that there was already such separation in practice.
There will be a new appointments system independent of government, but as a practical matter it will not bring about a reduction in the political element in appointments, because politics was already largely absent as a factor. The more interesting question is whether the net will be cast wider than promoting the more eminent intellects among the Appeal Court judges, who are the main source of Law Lords at the moment. Most historical examples of appointments of Law Lords outside the existing appellate judiciary belong to the era...