January 2008

Lords judgment: A v Hoare

January 31, 2008

I was at a conference yesterday, which is why I didn’t blog about yesterday’s Lords judgment in A v Hoare and related appeals, in which they ruled that civil claims for damages can be made out of time in some circumstances in cases of rape and sexual assault. But being stuck in traffic listening to [...]

Read the full piece →

Nonsense reforms to the Attorney’s role

January 29, 2008

Frances Gibb in today’s Times is reporting that the government will propose handing over to the DPP the Attorney’s role of consenting to a range of prosecutions – although otherwise, the Attorney’s role will remain unchanged. I don’t say all change to the Attorney’s role is ridiculous – I’m not quite that bufferish. But the [...]

Read the full piece →

Charon interview with Andrew Holroyd

January 29, 2008

Charon QC latest interviewee is Andrew Holroyd, President of the Law Society – who talks to him about the Society’s work on Zimbabwe and Pakistan, which you’ll know is an issue I’ve been concerned about since the lawyers’ protests began in November. I’m glad he’s taken such a clear position on these important international issues: [...]

Read the full piece →

Whoops!

January 28, 2008

New appointees to the High Court bench are, it turns out, embarrassingly white, male, public-schooly and barristerial. I wish I could argue that true appointment on merit may or may not result in more black and women appointees, more solicitors, etc. – so why expect that it must do so? But my heart’s not in [...]

Read the full piece →

Charon QC podcast and weekly review

January 27, 2008

Charon QC spoke to me this weekend about Peter Hain, the Counter-Terrorism Bill, the committee stage of the EU (Amendment) Bill and Pakistan – listen to the podcast here – and don’t miss his weekly review.

Read the full piece →

Garry Newlove: it wasn’t about bail

January 27, 2008

I’m a bit disheartened by this story. I entirely agree that bail conditions should be properly enforced: the fact that Adam Swellings felt able to return to Warrington immediately after being bailed on condition he shouldn’t return there shows that offenders hold the conditional bail system in contempt – something I knew years ago when [...]

Read the full piece →

EU (Amendment) Bill: the Hon. Members for Poland and the NHS

January 26, 2008

The Tory MP for Shrewsbury, Daniel Kawczynski, has tabled an interesting amendment which would require the government to renegotiate the Lisbon treaty to insert a declaration that the EU is based on its Christian faith, heritage, culture and history. Where have we heard this before? The Polish government gave up, in the end, on the [...]

Read the full piece →

Counter-Terrorism Bill

January 25, 2008

The Counter-Terrorism Bill has now been published, with explanatory notes. Clause 22 and Schedule 1 are what everyone’s been waiting for: the proposed extension of pre-charge detention beyond 28 days. The idea under the amendments brought in by Schedule 1 is that the normal maximum detention will remain at 28 days, but that the Home [...]

Read the full piece →

Hain goes

January 24, 2008

I heard via Charon QC, while checking my blawg feeds between teaching freedom of the person and free movement of persons, the news that Peter Hain has resigned from the Cabinet following the Electoral Commission’s decision to refer his case to the police. Here’s the Electoral Commission’s statement; and here’s the statement Peter Hain made [...]

Read the full piece →

FCO must release draft of Iraq dossier

January 23, 2008

I’ve not seen a lot of coverage of this, but the FCO has lost in its attempt to withhold disclosure of a draft of the “dodgy dossier” published before the invasion of Iraq. There’ll be a few glum faces in Whitehall over this: but it’s the Freedom of Information Act’s finest hour so far. Here’s [...]

Read the full piece →

← Previous Entries