Blog
News, analysis, comment and updates from ICLR's case law and UK legislation platform
This week’s collection of legal news and comment includes a u-turn on criminal charges, a review of criminal appeals, a consultation over human rights, a diversity of judicial appointments and a block on anonymously tweeted information requests. Criminal charges Unfair and unpopular Criminal Courts Charge dropped Lord Chancellor Michael Gove, in a speech to the Magistrates’… Continue reading
Confessions of a Barrister, by Russell Winnock (The Friday Project/Harper Collins, £8.99) Reviewed by Paul Magrath This is a warts-n-all depiction of life at the criminal bar, written by a junior of about fifteen years’ call, and seems to me both honest and authentic. It may lack the charm and romanticised rhetoric of Rumpole of… Continue reading
This week’s autumn review includes a spending spree on the courts, a change of forum shopping habits, a speaker denied a hearing, a monkey pressing his suit, an exemption withdrawn and a gateway moved. Plus the various horrors of injustice in foreign parts. Autumn statement Chancellor spins on a sixpence Acting on better than expected forecasts,… Continue reading
What does diversity look like in the legal profession? How can law firms do more to encourage applicants from less privileged backgrounds? Are there relevant differences between law firms and their corporate clients, such as Tesco or the National Grid? Are there regulatory constraints which prevent the professions from opening up different ways in? These… Continue reading
This week’s roundup of legal news and comment includes information technology in the courts, legal information in the library, a regulatory sandbox for financial product development, and a pair of litigious dogs being hounded out of court. Civil Litigation Back to the future that never was… will it be now? At his recent press conference on… Continue reading
This week’s platinum album of legal news and comment includes lyrical logic and poetic justice, along with a threatened library and a tender-hearted omnishambles. Prisons “Stone walls do not a prison make…” No indeed. They can just as easily be turned into a luxury town centre hotel or new housing development. Hence the Chancellor’s announcement this… Continue reading
Last weekend, the Sunday Times obligingly published details of what was described as “a draft of the government’s blueprint to replace the Human Rights Act with a British bill of rights”. However, the details breathlessly disclosed suggested whoever had written or leaked details of the “blueprint” had no idea what they were really talking about. Indeed,… Continue reading
This week’s roundup of legal news and events covers Pro Bono week, litigants in person, investigatory powers and freedom of information, plus human rights and inhuman wrongs from around the globe. Pro Bono week Attorney General kicks off annual celebration The start of the 14th National Pro Bono Week was marked on Monday 2 November by a… Continue reading
Reviewed by Sarah Phillimore Delivering Family Justice in the 21st Century (Edited by Mavis Maclean, John Eekelaar & Benoit Bastard, Hart Publishing, 2015) This is a wide ranging work – there are nineteen Chapters over four separate parts. The first two parts examine law and delivering family justice, examining the role of Judges and the courts in such… Continue reading
English and Welsh law is made up of common law and statute law – what I shall call, together, primary law; and, of the two, statute law will always trump common law. Common law is made for the most part by judges of the High Court, Upper Tribunal, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. Statute… Continue reading
