‘The Master of the Rolls gave the Third Annual BAILII Lecture on 27 November 2014.’
Judiciary of England and Wales, 28th November 2014
Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk
‘The backlog of tax disputes waiting to be heard has reached a new record high with a particular surge in the number of high value cases lodged with the Upper Tribunal, according to Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.’
OUT-LAW.com, 25th November 2014
Source: www.out-law.com
‘An employment tribunal which decided to carry out its own internet research, apparently to help a litigant in person, has been condemned by Mr Justice Langstaff, president of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).’
Litigation Futures, 20th November 2014
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘The Court of Appeal has handed down guidance on the approach to take to allegations of bias in long-running cases where a judge has substantial involvement in the prior stages of a case’s history.’
Littleton Chambers, 27th October 2014
Source: www.littletonchambers.com
‘In April 2014 Sadiq Khan, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, asked Karon Monaghan QC and Geoffrey Bindman QC to review the options for a future Labour Government to improve diversity in the judiciary. On November 6th their report, entitled “Judicial Diversity: Accelerating change”, was published. Starting from the premise that “[t]he near absence of women and Black, Asian and minority ethnic judges in the senior judiciary is no longer tolerable”, it proposes a range of recommendations designed to speed up the glacial pace of change. Perhaps the most controversial of these is for the introduction of a quota system for women and BAME candidates. The report reviews the use of quotas in other UK institutions as well as their use in judicial appointments processes around the world, before addressing the question of whether such quotas would be lawful under EU law. This is a key question: EU law casts a long shadow in this context, as the Monaghan and Bindman report makes clear, given that any legislation enacted in Westminster to give effect to a quota system in the process of judicial appointments must conform to the requirements of EU law.’
Full story
UK Constitutional Law Association, 12th November 2014
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘My first encounter with the fantasies that underpin English public law came in the 1980s. I had just starting teaching constitutional law and was taking my first year students through Dicey: the independent rule of law; the availability of remedies to all, without fear or favour; the common law’s marvellous protection of civil liberties; how great we were, how terrible the continent; and all the rest of it. Outside the classroom, striking miners were being routinely beaten up by the police, their picketing disrupted by road blocks, their liberty eroded by mass bail conditions. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was having its marches banned and its protests inhibited by ‘no-go’ areas arbitrarily erected by the police around American bases into which it had been decided to move a new generation of nuclear weapons. Some of my students were even beaten up themselves, on a march against education cuts in London – much to their surprise given what I was teaching them.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 13th November 2014
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘Our “antiquated” courts faced “severe crisis” without significant investment, the lord chief justice said yesterday. Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd offered journalists a judicial perspective on the financial pressures being imposed upon the courts at his annual press conference.’
LegalVoice, 13th November 2014
Source: www.legalvoice.org.uk
‘There is to be a drive to recruit retiring law firm partners to the senior judiciary in a bid to improve diversity, it has emerged.’
Legal Futures, 14th November 2014
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘A quota system should be introduced to address the under-representation of women and ethnic minority judges, a major independent report commissioned by the Labour Party has recommended.’
Full story
Litigation Futures, 6th November 2014
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘Is the question of anything more than historical interest? The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 precluded judicial peers from contributing to parliamentary debate from 1 October 2009. Many of the Law Lords were opposed to the change, and many judges are at least nostalgic for the past arrangements. The current Lord Chief Justice (LCJ) of England and Wales, Lord Thomas, and his immediate predecessor, Lord Judge, have both publicly regretted the fact that they cannot speak in Parliament on matters of importance to the judiciary. To the extent that the outlook of judges today is shaped partly by the feeling that they have lost a valuable platform, the issue is worth exploring. In fact judges were very infrequent contributors to parliamentary debate. Whilst past Lord Chief Justices – and other judicial peers – may have occasionally used the chamber of the Lords as a platform for articulating judicial viewpoints, all things considered they did so rarely.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 28th October 2014
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘The UK judicial system lags well behind the rest of Europe in terms of gender balance, according to a study of the relative efficiency of justice systems published on Thursday.’
The Guardian, 9th October 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Proposals by academics to allow new defences against trade mark infringement to be created in the future should be resisted, a trade mark law specialist has warned.’
OUT-LAW.com, 6th October 2014
Source: www.out-law.com
‘Master Gordon-Saker, who replaced Peter Hurst as Senior Costs Judge yesterday, has used his first public speech in the role to launch a strongly-worded attack on the lack of training for judges in costs budgeting.’
Litigation Futures, 2nd October 2014
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘This consultation seeks views on the proposed design of the Fee-paid Judicial Pension Scheme (FPJPS).’
Ministry of Justice, 19th September 2014
Source: https://consult.justice.gov.uk
‘A career judiciary with fast-track promotion to higher courts may be required to overcome lack of diversity on the bench, the UK’s most senior judge has suggested.’
The Guardian, 17th September 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Lord Chancellors should be recruited from the judiciary and no longer combine the role with that of justice secretary, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has argued.’
Legal Futures, 29th August 2014
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘Martin Partington discussed a range of careers in his podcasts yesterday. Today [20 August], he tackles how new legal issues and developments in the professional environment have in turn changed organizational structures, rules and regulations, and aspects of legal education.’
OUP Blog, 20th August 2014
Source: www.blog.oup.com
‘Judges could determine the outcome of some information rights tribunal cases on their own in future under just-published proposals.’
OUT-LAW.com, 19th August 2014
Source: www.out-law.com
© Inner Temple Library 2024