Impeachment in the United Kingdom
former legal process in the UK
Impeachment is a now obsolete process in which the Parliament of the United Kingdom may prosecute and try individuals, normally holders of public office, for high treason or other high crimes and misdemeanours. First used to try William Latimer, 4th Baron Latimer, during the English Good Parliament of 1376, it was a rare mechanism whereby Parliament was able to arrest and depose ministers of the Crown. The last impeachment was that of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, in 1806; since then, other forms of democratic scrutiny (such as the doctrine of collective cabinet responsibility and the recalling of members of Parliament) have been favoured, and impeachment has been considered as an obsolete—but still extant—power of Parliament.
This is in contrast to several other countries, where impeachment developed into a means to try officeholders for various misdeeds and has become a common process to the present day.
Procedure
The procedure for impeachment was described in the first edition of Erskine May thus: any member of the House of Commons with proof of an individual's crimes could charge them of said crime and move for their impeachment. If the House of Commons voted to impeach, the mover would be ordered to go to the Bar of the House of Lords to impeach them "in the name of the House of Commons, and of all the commons of the United Kingdom" and "to acquaint them that this house will, in due time, exhibit particular articles against him, and make good the same."
In practice, the Commons would usually select a committee to draw up the charges and create an "Article of Impeachment" for each. Once the committee had delivered the articles to the Lords, replies go between the accused and the Commons via the Lords. If the Commons have impeached a peer, the Lords take custody of the accused; otherwise, Black Rod takes custody. The accused remains in custody unless the Lords allow bail. The Lords set a date for the trial while the Commons appoints managers, who act as prosecutors in the trial.
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