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By Michael Scutt, 01/10/2009 3:56 pm

The excellent employment law website Emplaw informed me that the House of Lords was only around as the final court of appeal for a mere 610 years.  Labour’s Constitutional Reform Act 2005 did away with the House of Lords as a Court, with the intent of trying to ensure there was a proper separation of powers between legislature and judiciary.  Apparently the last Law Lord to meddle in politics was one William Le Scroope, who was beheaded for his trouble.  I don’t suppose there is any chance of a similar fate befalling those politicians who try and interfere in legal matters for a cheap headline: I’m particularly thinking of Harriet Harman who weighed into the dispute over Sir Fred Goodwin’s enormous pension by threatening to “take action”.  No such luck I suppose.

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By Michael Scutt, 01/10/2009 3:50 pm

As I mentioned in my last post, today sees a raft of new regulations introduced by the government. The policy now is to do this twice yearly, on 1^st April and 1^st October.  Last April saw the repeal of the statutory dispute regulations under the Employment Act 2002 and there was much cheering and rejoicing.  This month there is less to get excited about, although the introduction of the new Supreme Court as the final court of appeal in the UK, replacing the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords, is a moment of historic legal importance (see later).  Many of the regulations are technical amendments to company or partnership law.  The following are, perhaps, the most newsworthy;