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In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Nowadays life peerages, always of the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as age and citizenship. The legitimate children of a life peer take the privilege of children of hereditary peers, being entitled to style themselves with the prefix "The Honourable," although they cannot inherit the peerage itself. ==Before 1887== The Crown, as ''fount of honour'', has the undoubted right to create peerages, whether hereditary or for life. In the early days of the peerage, the Sovereign had the right to summon individuals to one Parliament without being bound to summon them again. Over time, it was established that once summoned, a peer would have to be summoned for the remainder of his life, and later, that the peer's heirs and successors would also be summoned, thereby firmly entrenching the hereditary principle. Nevertheless, life peerages lingered. From the reign of James I to that of George II (between 1603–1760), 18 life peerages were created for women. Women, however, were excluded from sitting in the House of Lords, so it was unclear whether or not a life peerage would entitle a man to do the same. For over four centuries—if one excludes those who sat in Cromwell's House of Lords (or Other House) during the Interregnum—no man had claimed a seat in the Lords by virtue of a life peerage. In 1856, it was thought necessary to add a peer learned in law to the House of Lords (which was the final court of appeal), without allowing the peer's heirs to sit in the House and swell its numbers. Sir James Parke, a Baron (judge) of the Exchequer, was created Baron Wensleydale for life, but the House of Lords concluded that the peerage did not entitle him to sit in the House of Lords. Lord Wensleydale was then compelled to take his seat as an hereditary peer. (Coincidentally, Parke had no sons, so his barony did not pass to an heir.) ''(See also Wensleydale Peerage Case (1856).)'' The Government introduced a bill to authorise the creation of two life peerages carrying seats in the House of Lords for judges who had held office for at least five years. The House of Lords passed it, but the bill was lost in the House of Commons. In 1869, a more comprehensive life peerages bill was brought forward by the Earl Russell. At any one time, 28 life peerages could be in existence; no more than four were to be created in any one year. Life peers were to be chosen from senior judges, civil servants, senior officers of the British Army or Royal Navy, members of the House of Commons who had served for at least ten years, scientists, writers, artists, peers of Scotland, and peers of Ireland. (Peers of Scotland and Ireland did not all have seats in the House of Lords, instead electing a number of representative peers.) The bill was rejected by the House of Lords at its third reading. Finally the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1887 allowed senior judges to sit in the House of Lords as life peers, known as ''Lords of Appeal in Ordinary''.〔McKechnie, William Sharp, 1909: (''The reform of the House of Lords; with a criticism of the Report of the Select Committee of 2nd December, 1908'' ), p.13〕 Those appointees who were not already members of the House of Lords were created life peers by the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876; for their titles see the list of law life peerages. Initially it was intended that peers created in this way would only sit in the House of Lords while serving their term as judges, but in 1887 (on the retirement of Lord Blackburn) the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1887 provided that former judges would retain their seats for life. This ended with the creation of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2009. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Life peer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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