[JURIST] The UK House of Lords [official website] and House of Commons [official website] clashed Wednesday over proposed legislation to effect key changes to the British legal system. The legislation aims to further separate the judiciary from politics by stripping the Lord Chancellor’s traditional authority and creating a Supreme Court to which judges would be appointed by an independent panel. In the Commons the Labour Party government of Prime Minister Tony Blair would also like to ban non-lawyers and non-representative peers from being able to hold the title of Lord Chancellor - a proposition fiercely opposed by the Lords themselves. Conservative shadow attorney general Dominic Grieve supports the ban, saying that the new Lord Chancellor position “should not become prey to party politics.” Review the text of the Constitutional Reform Bill [as brought from the Lords on 21st December 2004] and read House of Commons Research Papers on the proposed Supreme Court for the United Kingdom [PDF] and the office of Lord Chancellor [PDF]. The UK Press Association more.