It is a court of final appeal. This jurisdiction is practically confined to civil cases, but an appeal lies from the Court of Criminal Appeal if the at torney general certifies that the case involves a point of law of exceptional public importance.
exercises jurisdiction in cases of claims to peerages. It decides questions as to disputed elec tions of the Scotch and Irish peers.
See COURTS OF ENGLAND ; 17 L. Q. Rev. 155 Jenks, House of Lards.
House of Commons. There is no property qualifi cation for the House of Commons. Any male Brit ish subject may be elected, unless specifically barred. In one or two instances natives of India have been elected. Infants are excluded (by common law and by statute), though in two notable in stances, Fox and Lord John Russell, the rule has been disregarded.
Peers are excluded, including Scotch peers who have not been elected as representatives in the lords of the Scotch peerage, but an Irish peer not elected to represent Ireland in the lords may sit for a con stituency of Great Britain, but not of Ireland.
Clergy of the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church and ministers of the Church of Scotland are ineligible.
Government contractors, holders of certain pen sions, bankrupts, and persons convicted of treason or a felony or guilty of corrupt practices are in eligible.
All holders of civil offices, not distinctly political, and the judges of the higher courts and most of those of the lower courts are ineligible.
Bankruptcy and lunacy continuing for six months are ground for unseating a member.
From 1715 to 1911 the life of a parliament was seven years. In 1911, it was changed to five years. See PARLIAMENTARY ACT. Upon the demise of the crown, parliament is required to meet without sum mons in the usual form.
The districting of Great Britain, by the act of 1885, is uniform in boroughs and counties. Oxford and Cambridge Universities have sent representatives since the time of James I. Those of London and Dublin each have a member; Edinburgh and St. Andrews together have one, and Glasgow and Aber deen another. In case of a tie vote at an election, the returning officers of an election may break the tie.
By act of August, 1911, members of the House of Commons not receiving a salary from the govern ment are paid £400 a year.
The one fundamental dogma of English constitu tional law is the absolute sovereignty or despotism of the parliament. Dicey, Const. 141; no English court sits as a court of appeal from parliament ; L. R. 6 C. P. 582.
See May, Law, Priv. and Proc. of Parliament; St. Armand, Legislative Power ; Bagehot, English Con stitution; Pike, History of the House of HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT ; FOLC-GEMOTE; WITENA-GEMOTE; LEGISLATIVE POWER; PEERS; HOUSE OF LORDS; PARLIAMENTARY ACT; CLERK OF THE CROWN.