UK House of Lords defeats bill to redefine ancient office of Lord Chancellor News
UK House of Lords defeats bill to redefine ancient office of Lord Chancellor

[JURIST] The UK House of Lords Tuesday defeated a government measure that would have redefined the centuries-old office of Lord Chancellor by no longer requiring the position to be held by someone who was both a lawyer and member of the British parliament's upper chamber. The government measure was presented as one to better ensure the independence of the judiciary, but peers argued that the principle of independence was so recognized in convention that explicitly reflecting it in written law was unnecessary. This is the second setback for the government in its ongoing constitutional reform initiative; in July, the Lords blocked a proposal to completely abolish the Lord Chancellor's office. From London, the English legal newspaper The Lawyer has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.