“Are laws designed to protect individuals and minority groups from offence and harassment, inhibiting free speech?
Clive Anderson and his guests discuss whether cases such as the conviction of a woman for telling David Cameron he had ‘blood on his hands’ and the arrest of a man for calling a police horse ‘gay’ are bringing the law into disrepute.”
BBC Unreliable Evidence, 29th May 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art.14(6) requires state parties to compensate those who have suffered ‘a miscarriage of justice’. Although the UK ratified the Covenant in 1976, for more than a decade compensation for miscarriages of justice continued to be paid by the Home Office only on an ex gratia basis. Payment was first put onto a statutory basis in 1988.”
Criminal Law and Justice Weekly, 1st June 2013
Source: www.criminallawandjustice.co.uk
“The EU is taking Britain to court over migrants’ entitlement to benefits.”
The Independent, 30th May 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“The Communications Data Bill, shelved amid political heavy weather, is back on the agenda in the wake of last week’s Woolwich murder. Today for example, Conservative MP and former policing minister Nick Herbert wrote an article in The Times in support of the Bill and responding to those who have called it a ‘snooper’s charter’.”
Panopticon, 29th May 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“On 22 April 2013 the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in refusing to pay for a lawyer to assist Lindsay Sandiford as she faces the death penalty for drug offences in Indonesia. Last Wednesday, they handed down the reasons for their decision.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 29th May 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Ninety leading barristers have urged the government to withdraw ‘unjust proposals’ to restrict legal aid for people demanding judicial reviews.”
BBC News, 29th May 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Any review of the UK bribery laws which came into force in July 2011 would be ‘premature’, an expert has said.”
OUT-LAW.com, 29th May 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“The parents of a young woman who died after taking mephedrone have issued a warning against the so-called ‘party drug’ that ‘ripped our family apart’.”
Daily Telegraph, 29th May 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“A protest group is to appeal against a High Court ruling that effectively gave the go ahead to the London-Birmingham section of the HS2 high-speed railway.”
BBC News, 29th May 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Following the Bribery Act 2010 the next instrument the Government is preparing in the ‘battle against economic crime’ is the Deferred Prosecution Agreement [‘DPA’]. Following a consultation in 2012 the Ministry of Justice inserted schedule 17 into the Crime and Courts Act 2013 [‘CCA 2013’]. Although the Crime and Courts Act 2013 received Royal Assent in April 2013, Schedule 17 is not yet in force.”
No. 5 Chambers, 22nd May 2013
Source: www.no5.com
“In April 2013, the so called ‘bedroom tax’ was introduced, meaning that a single person or couple with no children will have their housing benefit reduced by 14% where they occupy two bedroom accommodation and 25% if they occupy three or more beds.”
Hardwicke Chambers, 24th May 2013
Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk
“The enactment of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (“PIDA”) was designed to introduce important protection for those blowing the whistle to draw attention to wrongdoing discovered in the workplace. During the passage of the Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Nolan commended those behind it ‘for so skilfully achieving the essential but delicate balance in this measure between the public interest and the interests of employers’. Fifteen years on, the verdict is less effusive. Significant gaps had been identified in the legislation, for example in failing to impose vicarious liability on employers for acts of victimisation carried out by their employees or agents. In other respects, however, PIDA has come to be seen a blunt instrument, enabling disgruntled employees to seek unlimited compensation despite having done nothing to further the public interest.”
Full story (PDF)
11 KBW, 22nd May 2013
Source: www.11kbw.com
“Islam and English Law, ed. Robin Griffith-Jones (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) begins with the foundational lecture given for the Temple Church by Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, on an ‘inevitable’ accommodation between shari‛a and British law. The book’s following chapters – by lawyers, sociologists and theologians – look back on developments since the Archbishop spoke and forwards along trajectories, in family law and human rights, opened by his lecture. This evening we pursue these questions further. How are the rights of all citizens to be respected and their responsibilities met?”
CPD-accreditation: 1 hour
Date: 3rd June 2013, 6.00-8.00pm
Location: Temple Church
Charge: Free entry, copies of the book will be on sale: paperback, £20; hardback, £55.
More information can be found here.
“The Bar Council, which represents barristers in England and Wales, is hosting a ‘Legal Aid Question Time’ debate in Westminster to give a range of interested individuals and groups the chance to have their say on the proposed legal aid changes.”
Date: 18th June 2013, 6.00-7.30pm
Location: Church House, Harvey Goodwin Suite, Dean’s Yard, London SW1P 3NZ
Charge: Free, registration required
More information can be found here.
“A Muslim-run company have been ordered to pay a Christian worker over £2,000 for racially discriminating against him because he is white.”
Daily Telegraph, 29th May 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“Thousands of criminals, including burglars, will be allowed to work in hospitals, schools and care homes after senior judges ruled that criminal record checks were breaching offenders’ human rights.”
Daily Telegraph, 29th May 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“The disgraced choirmaster Michael Brewer is to attempt to appeal against the length of his six-year prison sentence for indecently assaulting a former pupil.”
The Guardian, 29th May 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The UCL Faculty of Laws is celebrating Professor Michael Freeman’s extraordinary contribution to legal scholarship over the course of his distinguished career in the 2013 Current Legal Issues Colloquium.
The themes of the Colloquium will encompass children’s rights, corporal punishment of children, family and child law generally, medical ethics and the law, jurisprudence, Jewish law and legal systems/legal pluralism, all areas of research to which Michael has made significant contributions.”
Date: 1st – 2nd July 2013
Location: UCL Faculty of Laws – Graduate Wing
Charge: For conference packages see here.
More information can be found here.
“In these times of austerity, the impact of public spending cuts on the most disadvantaged is in the spotlight. With research suggesting that the poor are disproportionately negatively impacted by spending cuts, the question of whether the law should step in on their behalf to challenge public spending decisions is at the fore. The longstanding divide between those who think that it is not the place of the law to redistribute resources and those who think socio-economic rights cannot be fully realised without such redistribution, is reignited.”
Date: 6th June 2013, 6.00pm
Location: Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens, WC1H 0EG
Charge: Free
More information can be found here.
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