Representative peer
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In the United Kingdom, representative peers were those peers elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords. Until 1999, all members of the Peerage of England held the right to sit in the House of Lords; they did not elect a limited group of representatives. All peers who were created after 1707 as Peers of Great Britain and after 1801 as Peers of the United Kingdom held the same right to sit in the House of Lords.
Representative peers were introduced in 1707, when the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland were united into the Kingdom of Great Britain. At the time there were 168 English and 154 Scottish peers.[1] The English peers feared that the House of Lords would be swamped by the Scottish element, and consequently the election of a small number of representative peers to represent Scotland was negotiated.[1] A similar arrangement was adopted when the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in January 1801.
Scotland was allowed to elect sixteen representative peers, while Ireland could elect twenty-eight.[2] Those chosen by Scotland sat for the life of one Parliament, and following each dissolution new Scottish peers were elected. In contrast, Irish representative peers sat for life. Elections for Irish peers ceased when the Irish Free State came into existence as a dominion in December 1922. However, already-elected Irish peers continued to be entitled to sit until their death. Elections for Scottish peers ended in 1963, when all Scottish peers obtained the right to sit in the House of Lords.
Under the House of Lords Act 1999, a new form of representative peer was introduced to allow some hereditary peers to stay in the House of Lords.[3]
Scotland
Under articles XXII and XXIII of the
The
Under the Peerage Act 1963, all Scottish peers procured the right to sit in the House of Lords, and the system of electing representative peers was abolished.[11] Scottish as well as British and English hereditary peers lost their automatic right to sit in the Upper House with the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999. During the debate on the House of Lords Bill, a question arose as to whether the proposal would violate the Treaty of Union.[12] In suggesting that the Bill did indeed violate the Articles of Union, it was submitted that, prior to Union, the Estates of Parliament, Scotland's old, pre-Union parliament, was entitled to impose conditions, and that one fundamental condition was a guarantee of representation of Scotland in both Houses of Parliament at Westminster. It was implied, furthermore, that the Peerage Act 1963 did not violate the requirement of Scottish representation, set out in the Article XXII of the Treaty of Union, by allowing all Scottish peers to sit in the House of Lords: as long as a minimum of sixteen seats were reserved for Scotland, the principles of the Article would be upheld.[12][13] It was further argued that the only way to rescind the requirement of Article XXII would be to dissolve the Union between England and Scotland,[13] which the House of Lords Bill did not seek to do.[11]
Counsel for the Government held a different view. It was noted that the Peerage Act 1963 explicitly repealed the portions of the Articles of Union relating to elections of representative peers, and that no parliamentary commentators had raised doubts as to the validity of those repeals. As Article XXII had been, at least purportedly, repealed, there was nothing specific in the Treaty that the bill transgressed. It was further asserted by the Government that Article XXII could be repealed because it had not been entrenched. Examples of entrenched provisions are numerous: England and Scotland were united "forever",[14] the Court of Session was to remain "in all time coming within Scotland as it is now constituted",[15] and the establishment of the Church of Scotland was "effectually and unalterably secured".[16] Article XXII, however, did not include any words of entrenchment that would have made it "fundamental or unalterable in all time coming".[17]
Further, the Government pointed out that, even if the election of Scottish peers were entrenched,
The Privileges Committee unanimously found that the Articles of Union would not be breached by the House of Lords Bill if it were enacted.
Ireland
Irish representation in the Westminster parliament was outlined by articles IV and VIII of the agreement embodied in the Acts of Union 1800, which also required the Irish Parliament to pass an act before the union providing details for implementation.[23]
Irish peers were allowed to elect twenty-eight representative peers as
The
The Acts of Union united the
Following the establishment of the
In 1965, the
The petitioners failed to raise the status of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. Charles Lysaght suggests that if this fact had been foremost, Lord Wilberforce's arguments relating to the removal of the electoral mechanism for the election could be rebutted, as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper did have successors in Northern Ireland. The reason for excluding the arguments relating to Northern Ireland from the petition "was that leading counsel for the petitioning Irish peers was convinced that the members of the Committee for Privileges were with him on what he considered was his best argument and did not want to alienate them by introducing another point."[36] To prevent further appeals on the matter, Parliament repealed, as a part of the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1971, the sections of the Acts of Union relating to the election of Irish representative peers.[36]
House of Commons
After the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, Scottish peers, including those who did not sit as representative peers, were excluded from the
The Peerage Act 1963 allowed all Scottish peers to sit in the House of Lords;[42] it also permitted all Irish peers to sit in the House of Commons for any constituency in the United Kingdom, as well as to vote in parliamentary elections, without being deprived of the remaining privileges of peerage.[11]
Hereditary "representative peers"
During the passage of the House of Lords Bill in 1999, controversy surrounding House of Lords reform remained,[43] and the Bill was conceived as a first stage of Lords reform.[44] The "Weatherill" amendment—so called since it was proposed by former House of Commons Speaker Bernard Weatherill—provided for a number of hereditary peers to remain as members of the House of Lords, during the first stage of Lords reform.[45] It could then be reviewed during the next stage of the reform, when the system of appointed life peerages came under examination. In exchange for the House not delaying the passage of the Bill into law, the Government agreed to this amendment, and it then became part of the House of Lords Act 1999, and 92 hereditary peers were allowed to remain.[46]
The ninety-two peers are made up of three separate groups. Fifteen 'office-holders' comprise deputy speakers and deputy chairmen, and are elected by the house, while seventy-five party and Crossbench members are elected by their own party or group.[3] In addition, there are two royal appointments: the Lord Great Chamberlain,[3] currently Lord Carrington, is appointed as the King's representative in Parliament, while the post of Earl Marshal[3] remains purely hereditary; the office has been held since 1672 by the Dukes of Norfolk and is responsible for ceremonies such as the State Opening of Parliament.[47]
Notes
- ^ a b Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead. "Opinions of the Committee". Select Committee on Privileges Second Report. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ^ May, Erskine (1862). The Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George III 1760–1860. Boston: Crosby & Nichols. p. 228.
- ^ a b c d "Membership: Types of Member" (PDF). House of Lords. 2009. p. 2. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
- ^ May, Thomas Erskine (1851). A practical treatise on the law, privileges, proceedings and usage of Parliament. Butterworths. pp. 6–8, 15. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
- doi:10.1086/238935.
- ^ Connell, Arthur (1827). A Treatise on the Election Laws in Scotland: To which is Added an Historical Inquiry Concerning the Municipal Constitutions of Towns and Boroughs. pp. 17–8.
- ^ Wight, Alexander (1806). "The Scottish Peers". An Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of Parliament, Chiefly in Scotland. Vol. 1. W. Creech & J. Murray. p. 127.
- ^ "House of Lords Hansard for 29 Apr 1999 (pt 16)". House of Lords Hansard. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ^ a b Debrett, John (1839). Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland. London: J. G. & F. Rivington. p. 358.
- ^ a b Connell, Arthur (1827). A treatise on the election laws in Scotland. Edinburgh: William Blackwood. pp. 9–11. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
- ^ a b c d "Peerage Act 1963". The Committee Office, House of Lords. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ^ a b Lord Slynn Hadley. "Select Committee on Privileges Second Report". The Committee Office, House of Lords. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ^ a b Richard S. Keen. "Case for the Lord Gray". The Committee Office, House of Lords. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
- ^ "Treaty of Union 1707". The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707. School of History at the University of St Andrews. 1706. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
- ^ "Union With England Act 1707". The Committee Office, House of Lords. Archived from the original on 2 August 2007. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ^ a b "Appendix 3 'Case for Her Majesty's Government'". Select Committee on Privileges Second Report. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ^ Hector L. MacQueen, Scott Wortley (September 1998). "House of Lords reform and the Treaty of Union". University of Edinburgh. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
- ^ "Union with Scotland Act 1706". Select Committee on Privileges Second Report. The Committee Office, House of Lords. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ^ Hunt, Jocelyn (2003). Britain, 1846–1919. Routledge. p. 225.
- ^ Evan, Anna Laura (1929). The disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869. Lancaster: James & Naomi.
- ^ "Early Irish Law and Brehon law". Courts Service of Ireland. Archived from the original on 6 April 2007. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ^ "Different types of Lords". About Parliament. Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
- ^ Malcomson 2000 p.312; "(40 Geo. 4 c.39 [Ir.]) An Act to regulate the Mode by which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons to Serve in the United Kingdom on the Part of Ireland, shall be summoned and returned to the said Parliament". The statutes at large, passed in the Parliaments held in Ireland. Vol. 20. Dublin: Boulter Grierson. 12 June 1800. pp. 349–358.
- ^ a b c d Malcomson (2000) p. 311
- ^ Malcomson 2000 p.313
- ^ Finnelly, (1830), p 164
- ^ May, A practical treatise ... of Parliament (1851), p 169; Finnelly, William (1830). The Law and Practice of Elections in England, Scotland, and Ireland. London: A. Maxwell. pp. 161–3.
- ^ "The Peerage of Ireland—Proof of Right To Vote.—Resolutions". Hansard. 3 July 1857. HL Deb vol 146 cc855–6. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
- ^ "Representative Peers For Ireland". Hansard. 29 January 1908. HL Deb vol 183 cc5–7. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
- ^ 40 Geo. 4 c.39 [Ir.] sec.5
- ^ Malcomson (2002), p. 325
- ^ a b "A Brief History". Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough. Retrieved 21 September 2017.
- ^ Gadd, R.P. "A short account of the peerage of Ireland". The Heraldry Society. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
- ^ Brigid Hadfield (1998). "The Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the Act of Union". BBC NI. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ^ "Court Officers Act 1926 s.31". electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB). Retrieved 12 November 2020.; Committee For Privileges 1966 p.xl s.6
- ^ a b c d e f Lysaght, Charles (1999). "The Irish Peers and the House of Lords". 106th Edition. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ^ Brigid Hadfield (1998). "The Belfast Agreement, Sovereignty and the State of the Union". BBC NI. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ISBN 1-84383-280-1.
- ISBN 1-4021-8561-8.
- ^ "Act of Union (Ireland) 1800 (c.38)". The UK Statute Law Database. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
- ^ Malcomson 2000 p.320
- ^ "Legislation affecting the House of Lords: Legislation affecting the House of Lords". Retrieved 17 January 2013.
- ^ "Hansard, Vol 604 No 127 Cols 1399–1422". 27 July 1999. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
- ^ "HC Hansard, Vol 321 Col 874". 2 December 1998. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
- ^ Michael White and Lucy Ward (12 May 1999). "Suspicious peers back reform". The Guardian.
- ^ "Annual Report and Accounts 1999–2000". United Kingdom Parliament. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
- ^ "Earl Marshal". Official Royal posts. The Royal Household. Archived from the original on 17 January 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
Sources
- Committee For Privileges (5 July 1966). Report on the Petition of the Irish Peers, together with the Cases of the Petitioners, Proceedings of the Committee, and the Minutes of Evidence. Sessional papers. Vol. HL 1966–67 VIII (53) 896. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
- Farnborough, Thomas. Erskine. May, 1st Baron. (1863) Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George the Third. Volume 1Boston: Crosby and Nichols.
- Lysaght, Charles (1999). "The Irish Peers and the House of Lords". 106th Edition. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- Malcomson, A.P.W. (December 2000). "The Irish Peerage and the Act of Union, 1800–1971". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 10, 6th series. Cambridge University Press: 289–327. S2CID 143607711. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Series: Anglo-Irish Treaty: Text of. Anglo-Irish Treaty, 6 December 1921. The National Archives of Ireland. Retrieved 2007-04-07
- Briefing Paper: Membership of House of Lords (pdf). House of Lords, 2009. Retrieved 2013-01-31
- Peerage (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
- Privileges – First Report. House of Lords, 18 October 1999. Retrieved 2007-04-07