Highest court moves out of upper house

       British constitutional history was made on Thursday as judges in a new Supreme Court were sworn in,replacing the House of Lords as Britain's highest appeal tribunal.
       Ending a centuries-old judicial quirk,11 new justices took their oaths of office in the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, housed in a gothic building just across from the Houses of Parliament.
       Although largely symbolic, the move - which will also see cameras allowed into court for the first time - should make the administration of justice more transparent, politicians and judges say.
       "This is important. It emphasises the independence of the judiciary, clearly separating those who make the law from those who administer it," said Lord Nicholas Phillips, president of the new court.
       "As Justices of the Supreme Court,we will be more visible to the public than we ever were when sitting as members of the House of Lords."
       Since 1876, the role of final court of appeal for England, Wales and Northern Ireland has been performed by the Law Lords, a House of Lords committee made up of top judges.
       Before then, it was the job of ordinary peers who contemporary commentators said were often unfamiliar with the law - and keener on drinking at gentlemen's clubs than hearing complex cases.
       Although the Law Lords' independence was not in question, in recent years ministers and many top lawyers came to believe that separating the judiciary, parliament and the executive was important for the sake of clarity.
       The new Supreme Court Justices are in fact the same men who had until now been called Law Lords - minus their wigs.