... Thus if judges are to have any impact on restraining the actions of Parliament, their judgments must be seen as legitimate. In impacting directly on this legitimacy, the proposals can only benefit the justice system. The proposal that attracted the most headlines was the abolition of the Lord Chancellor's office. An historical anomaly that breached the principle of separation of powers, the position was both obsolete and unsustainable. The curtailment of all the monarchy's real power eroded any need for this position, and growing criticism made its abolition expedient. The problems it attracted were acutely illustrated when Lord MacKay, as Lord Chancellor, visited the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 1996, ostensibly to persuade the court to change its procedures. When a favourable judgement from the ECHR on an unrelated case was delivered hours before his arrival, suspicion grew over the role Lord MacKay had had ...

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