header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us
07 August 2008 / David Pope
Issue: 7333 / Categories: Opinion
printer mail-detail

Location, location, location

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.

The law lords' move to Middlesex Guildhall cannot happen soon enough, says David Pope

When Lord Falconer announced i n Dec ember 2004 that Middlesex Guildhall would be expensively renovated to house the new UK Supreme Court, I confess that I was sceptical. With so many deserving calls on public funds, I wondered how the government could sensibly justify spending £30m to move the 12 law lords from one side of Parliament Square to the other. I suspected a vanity project: the former Lord Chancellor wanted to put the bling into New Labour's dabbling in constitutional reform.

Change of Heart

I am a sceptic no longer. Not that my change of heart owes anything to the patter on the Ministry of Justice's website. I sincerely doubt that relocating the most senior judges in the land to a building a few hundred metres from the Palace of Westminster will play much part in “further separating the judiciary from the legislature”. And there is probably any number of sites in central London other than Middlesex Guildhall that

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
Slater Heelis—Charlotte Beck

Slater Heelis—Charlotte Beck

Partner and Manchester office lead appointed head of family

Civil Justice Council—Nigel Teasdale

Civil Justice Council—Nigel Teasdale

DWF insurance services director appointed to Civil Justice Council

R3—Jodie Wildridge

R3—Jodie Wildridge

Kings Chambers barrister appointed chair of R3 Yorkshire

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: Renters’ Rights revolution begins—brace for tribunal chaos

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

NLJ this week: Civil procedure gets a spring overhaul
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
NLJ this week: Why GP complaints are going nowhere
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
NLJ this week: Prenups meet a jurisdictional brick wall
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
NLJ this week: Has Rylands v Fletcher come back from the dead?
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll