In October, the American and British supreme courts both kicked off their 2009-10 terms. Beyond the debut of rookie Justice Sonia Sotomayor, this was not particularly big news in the United States. But across the pond, there is excited talk of constitutional crisis and an “October Revolution.”
The reason for the drama is that Britain has never had a Supreme Court before. For 600 years, the highest court in the land was a group of “law lords” who were part of Parliament itself. Although the law lords tended to avoid legislative debates, they were still life peers and full members of the House of Lords. Their official head was the lord chancellor — who was also a member of the prime minister’s cabinet and the presiding officer of the House of Lords.
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