A key consideration is whether the new Supreme Court adopts a US-style system where all the judges sit, or whether the current panel system is keptFourteen centuries of British tradition were erased in a single brushstroke when dramatic changes to the structure of the judiciary were announced this year – not a moment too soon, according to many.

The post of Lord Chancellor and the dual roles of the law lords, both glaring aberrations in the separation of powers, had come to sit as uncomfortably in the modern world as the Lord Chancellor on his woolsack in the House of Lords.