Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/618

 The British House of Lords in Its Judicial Capacity. 567

THE BRITISH HOUSE OF LORDS IN ITS JUDICIAL CAPACITY. BY LAWRENCE IRWELL. AN appeal to the House of Lords is essen before His Majesty the King in his High tially and emphatically a last resort on Court of Parliament. the part of any litigant in Great Britain, :md I>ut even before this petition can be is also highly expensive. Moreover, it must '"lodged" (presented), the litigant must ob be preceded by a long course of costly liti tain two counsel (barristers) of repute to gation in the lower courts, as well as by an certify in formal terms to the Lords lhat absolutely unass^ssable amount of mental they "humbly conceive this to be a proper wear and tear. Hut an explanation of the case to be heard before your Lordships." course of procedure may not be without This petition must be printed on parchment interest to those readers of THE GREEN —a costly item in the luxury of appeal. When BAG who know little of the procedure of it is presented, security has to be given for the highest court in the United Kingdom. clue payment of the costs to be incurred— The first thing that strikes both the appel namely "a recognizance" to the amount of lant and the curious stranger about the five hundred pounds and a bond for two hun House of Lords is its utter unlikeness to any dred pounds. court of justice with which he is familiar. Assuming that these preliminaries have The atmosphere is distinct and peculiar, and been completed, then the case for each side as different from an American court—or any forming the subject-matter of appeal has to other British court—as can well be imagined. be set forth for "My Lords." It must be The whole chamber seems bathed in an air clearly printed in large type on quartoof calm repose and cool deliberation. There sized sheets, and bound in book-form. Forty is neither hurry nor excitement, and the copies must be lodged, and of these ten must usual crowd of interested spectators is ab be bound in purple cloth, with parchment sent. slips inserted at each part of the case, thus .dividing the book into sections—vis.: "Peti If a litigant has lost his case in all the tion for Appeal"; "Appellant's Case"; "Ap lower courts, and is still convinced or per pellant's Index"; "Respondent's Case"; "Re suaded that the law is really on his side—and spondent's Index." strict law is the nearest approach to absolute No witnesses are called, of course, in an justice we can look for in human society— Appeal to the Lords, and consequently there and decides to appeal to the Hcuse of Lords, is no cross-examination, and no sparring be he will find from the very outset that he is to have a wholly new experience. The tween counsel. The facts are supposed to have been already threshed out, and it re familiar, if somewhat exasperating document mains but to deliver the final and irrevocable headed with "Take Notice," which has ap fiat of the highest court upon the law of the peared in all previous proceedings now disappears, and the appellant makes ac case. The ultimate arbiters who constitute this quaintance with a document addressed Supreme Court of Appeal are, nominally, all "To the Right Honourable the House of the peers of the realm, that is, all the mem Lords'": the humble petition and appeal of bers of the House of Lords. Every peer, of John Blank, praying that the judgment in whatever rank, is entitled to sit and hear the case of Blank v. Doe mav be reviewed