Brice Dickson reviews the performance of the law lords in 2008
The year just ended was the last in which the House of Lords will constitute the highest court in the . The biggest legal event of 2009 will be the transfer of the jurisdiction to the UK Supreme Court in October. Even though lawyers and judges tend to think in terms of legal rather than calendar years, a review of the output of their Lordships during the past 12 months will help to provide some baseline figures for future comparisons between the two institutions.
Decisions
In 2008 the House of Lords issued 74 decisions ([2008] UKHL 1 to [2008] UKHL 74), 16 more than in 2006 and exactly equal to the record annual number set in 2005. One of the decisions (R v GG plc [2008] UKHL 17) was subjected to reporting restrictions and is not available for analysis.
The 73 published decisions related, in all, to 91 appeals, as in 10 cases a number of appeals were conjoined. On the other hand, three appeals
