Includes bibliographical references and index.

The judicial role of the House of Lords before 1870 / David Lewis Jones -- The judicial House of Lords : abolition and restoration 1873-6 / David Steele -- The judicial office / James Vallance White -- The House of Lords and the English Court of Appeal / Gavin Drewry and Louis Blom-Cooper -- From appellate committee to Supreme Court : a narrative / Andrew Le Sueur -- The Lord Chancellor as head of the judiciary / Dawn Oliver -- Appointments to the House of Lords : who goes upstairs / Kate Malleson -- The Law Lords : who has served / Tom Bingham -- 1966 and all that : the story of the practice statement / Louis Blom-Cooper -- Style of judgments / Louis Blom-Cooper -- Law Lords in Parliament / David Hope -- The early years of the House of Lords, 1876-1914 / Patrick Polden -- A developing jurisdiction, 1914-45 / D.G.T. Williams -- Towards a system of administrative law : the Reid and Wilberforce era, 1945-82 / Louis Blom-Cooper and Gavin Drewry -- The end of the twentieth century : the House of Lords, 1982-2000 / Michael Beloff -- A hard act to follow : the Bingham Court, 2000-8 / Brice Dickson -- From Scotland and Ireland / Philip H. Brodie, Ronan Keane, Brice Dickson -- The interplay with the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council / Kenneth Keith -- The old commonwealth / Michael Kirby ... [et al.] -- Reflections from the new commonwealth / Fred Phillips.

A transatlantic comparison / Tom Zwart -- A European perspective / Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen -- Views from legal practice / Arthur Marriott, Mark Littman -- A view from the city / Michael Blair -- A political scientist's perspective / Gavin Drewry -- International law / Rosalyn Higgins -- European influences / Francis Jacobs and David Anderson -- Constitutional law / Brigid Hadfield -- Administrative law / Paul Craig -- Human rights / David Feldman -- Non-discrimination and equality / Brenda Hale -- Criminal law / J.R. Spencer -- Fair trial : 'one golden thread' / Anthony Hooper -- Torts / Robert Stevens -- Libel, privacy, and freedom of expression / Eric Barendt -- Family law / Stephen Cretney -- Land law / Derek Wood -- Commercial law / Francis Reynolds -- Intellectual property / Robin Jacob -- Tax law / John Tiley and Stephen Oliver.