House of Lords : outdated vestige, or original singularity ?

Résumé du document

A kind of fusty tradition characterizes the upper chamber of the Parliament of the United Kingdom today : not only its members are dressed as they were four centuries ago, but they are chosen as they were four centuries ago.
Definitively, such a Chamber would be unbelievable in France or Germany.
What is the historical way leading to such an institution?
What are the current attempts to reform the House of Lords?

Extraits

[...] Bibliography Questions internationales Le Royaume-Uni, puissance du XXIe siècle, La Documentation Française, juillet-août 2006. Tim Koopmans, Courts and Political Institutions: A Comparative View, Cambridge University Press Encyclopedia Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_lords. Modèle par défaut Bibliography Questions internationales Le Royaume-Uni, puissance du XXIe siècle, La Documentation Française, juillet-août 2006. Tim Koopmans, Courts and Political Institutions: A Comparative View, Cambridge University Press Encyclopedia Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_lords. [...]