Justices of the Supreme Court

The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 provides for a Supreme Court to take over the jurisdiction of the House of Lords, with the existing law lords as its first members. In an article in the Law Society’s Gazette of 21 February, Joshua Rozenberg raised the question of what newly appointed members of the Supreme Court will be called after the law lords are abolished next year. They are not to be granted peerages, so should a lord justice on appointment to the Supreme Court be re-branded as plain ‘Justice’ or should he or she be merely known as ‘Sir’ or ‘Lady’? Mr Rozenberg suggested that all Supreme Court judges should be given the honorary title of Lord or Lady just like the Scottish equivalent of High Court judges. Then we could continue to call them the law lords – and pretend that none of this had ever happened.