HC Deb 11 August 1913 vol 56 cc2215-6

Every Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, whether appointed before or after the passing of this Act, who at the date of his appointment would have been qualified to be appointed an ordinary judge of the Court of Appeal, or who at that date was a judge of that Court shall be an ex-officio judge of that Court, but no such Lord of Appeal shall be required to sit and act as a judge of the Court of Appeal unless upon the request of the Lord Chancellor he consents so to do, and whilst so sitting and acting he shall rank therein according to his precedence as a peer.

Mr. WATT

I beg to move in Clause 2 to leave out the word "whether" ["whether appointed before or after the passing of this Act."]

I desire to limit to those appointed after the passing of this Act the privilege of being ex-officio judges of the Court of Appeal. There are a number of consequential Amendments.

Sir RUFUS ISAACS

As I understand my hon. Friend wishes to secure that only the new Law Lords shall be ex-officio members of the Court of Appeal. I do not quite understand why he wishes that because the whole object we have in view is that the Law Lords should be able to sit in the Court of Appeal. You could not accomplish that unless you passed this Clause. I hope my hon. Friend will not persist in this Amendment.

Mr. BOOTH

I beg to move to leave out the words "but no such Lord of Appeal shall be required to sit and act as a judge of the Court of Appeal unless upon the request of the Lord Chancellor he consents so to do, and whilst so sitting and acting he shall rank therein according to his precedence as a peer." I move this Amendment in order to obtain some explanation as to why these words have been put in.

Sir RUFUS ISAACS

The object of inserting those words is to provide that no Lord of Appeal shall be required to sit and act as a judge of the Court of Appeal unless requested to do so by the Lord Chancellor and unless he consents to do so. From inquiries I have made I am able to state that there are no cases of judges having refused to do any of this work, and unless you have these words in the Bill the Law Lords could not sit in the Court of Appeal at all.

Mr. BOOTH

I ask leave to withdraw my Amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Clauses 3 and 4 added to the Bill.