Peeress. Women may acquire peerages by creation (as the Baroness Burdett Coutts), descent (as where a peerage goes in the female as well as in the male line, to which line it is usually confined), or marriage, but they have never had the legislative power, and it was decided in Viscountess Rhondda's Claim, (1922) 2 AC 339, that a peeress of the United Kingdom in her own right is not entitled to receive a writ of summons to Parliament by virtue of, the (English) Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act, 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5, c. 71). 20 Hen. 6, c. 9, declares that peeresses, either in their own right or by marriage, shall be tried before the same judicature as peers of the realm.
View Judgments Citing this Phrase