“‘Access to justice should not be determined by your ability to pay’, begins the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling – perhaps accompanied by a subtle wink – at the beginning of the Ministry of Justice’s new consultation document. As many readers will know, the Government is currently consulting on a second round of legal aid cuts. This time, savings of £220m per year are estimated. The consultation closes in just under a month, on 4 June 2013.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 5th May 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Commonwealth Law Conference: Equality before the law – Speech by Lord Judge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, 18th April 2013.”
Judiciary of England and Wales, 24th April 2013
Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk
“Parliamentary legislation is excessively complex and its confusions undermine the rule of law, according to the official in charge of drafting government statutes.”
The Guardian, 16th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Omar Othman is a resident of this country – guilty of no crime and up to now facing no charges – whose home country wants to put him on trial in a case where the key evidence against him will in all likelihood have been procured by torture. The only reason he probably won’t be tortured is because the state concerned has reluctantly promised (as an inducement to get him back) not to follow its usual routine.”
UK Constitutional Law Group, 30th March 2013
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org
“Last year the Divisional Court upheld the Home Secretary’s decision to prevent a dissident Iranian politician coming to the United Kingdom to address the Palace of Westminster: see that decision here and my post discussing the ‘Politics of Fear’.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 22nd March 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“” It is a pleasure to be here this evening to deliver the LCLCBA’s annual lecture. It is some time now since I was the chairman of the Association and I am glad to see that under the chairmanship of Michael Kent QC it continues to go from strength to strength. The role played in the development of the profession, and the interests of their members, of specialist Bar Associations, such as the LCLCBA is of immense importance and will continue to be so. I should emphasise that the views I express are my own; I do not purport to speak for the judiciary more generally…”
Judiciary of England and Wales, 22nd November 2012
Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk
“According to Cameron, there is a need to restrict the right to judicial review to ensure the country’s economic competitiveness. As he put it, judicial review should, therefore, cost more, have shorter deadlines, and fewer rights of appeal. This is so that ‘people think twice about time wasting’.”
NearlyLegal, 20th November 2012
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
“We ought always to strive to streamline our judicial system, but our right of access to justice should not be lightly interfered with.”
The Guardian, 19th November 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Today, I talk with Carl Gardner, ex government lawyer and author of the Head of Legal blog about the SIAC Abu Qatada decision and the wider implications for our society if we do not continue to uphold the Rule of Law – no matter how inconvenient it may be for politicians.”
Charon QC, 13th November 2012
Source: www.charonqcuklawtour.com
“The historian Niall Ferguson delivers a lecture, recorded at Gresham College in the heart of legal London, addressing the relationship between the nature of law and economic success. He examines the rule of law in comparative terms, asking how far the common law’s claims to superiority over other systems are credible. Are we living through a time of creeping legal degeneration in the English-speaking world?”
Lecture by Professor Niall Ferguson
Gresham College, 3rd July 2012
Source: www.gresham.ac.uk
“The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that states must allow for at least some prisoners to vote, but that states have a wide discretion as to deciding which prisoners. This amounts to a retreat on prisoner votes, but certainly no surrender. As I predicted, the court reaffirmed the principles set out in Hirst No. 2, that an automatic and indiscriminate bans breach the European Convention on Human Rights, but also reaffirmed that it was up to states to decide how to remove those indiscriminate bans.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 22nd May 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Prisoners in the UK must be given the right to vote, the European court of human rights (ECHR) has ruled, though ministers may determine which inmates should be enfranchised.”
The Guardian, 22nd May 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The government should now accept its responsibilities under the human rights convention. Any other reaction will significantly harm the rule of law.”
The Guardian, 22nd May 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Ken Clarke wants to allow evidence to be heard in secret where it would compromise national security. Here we explain why there is such controversy over the Government’s plan to hold some court cases and inquests behind closed doors.”
Daily Telegraph, 4th April 2012
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“Michael Todd QC, the Chairman of the Bar Council, which represents barristers in England and Wales, will today address an invited audience in Grand Court Number One of the Cayman Islands on ‘Ethics and the Rule of Law.’ ”
The Bar Council, 22nd March 2012
Source: www.barcouncil.org.uk
“The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, has voiced his concern over a decision to release the radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada on bail but added that courts could not allow people to be held in indefinite detention without trial.”
The Guardian, 7th February 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
General, Equal and Certain: Law Reform Today and Tomorrow (PDF)
Speech by Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Master of The Rolls
Lord Renton Lecture 2011, 28th November 2011
Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk
“The first of the Guardian Law book club’s choices will probably define ‘the rule of law’ for a century. But the lecture it was based on went almost unnoticed.”
The Guardian, 7th September 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
