June 2008

R v G: charging policy and respect for private life

June 27, 2008

The other reader request comes from an equally esteemed legal chap whose legal interests closely match those of Head of Legal and who finds early mornings equally or perhaps even more challenging. He asks what I think of the Lords’ judgment last week in R v G. The facts are these. G was prosecuted for [...]

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That Burnham-Davis-Chakrabarti affair

June 27, 2008

In my blawg radio silence earlier this week I received a couple of reader requests to deal with vital topics of the day. The first, from an estimable legal lady whose handbag bulges with law reports and Heat magazine, and who wants to know my view of the recent heart-melting ménage à trois involving the [...]

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Austrian Chancellor’s future referendum promise

June 27, 2008

Iain Dale picked up this morning on a surprising move from the Austrian Chancellor Gusenbauer: he’s promised a referendum on any new EU Treaty which “affects Austrian interests”. This is a bit more complicated than it sounds. Gusenbauer is in pretty desperate political straits: only the other week he was forced out of his position [...]

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Wheeler v Prime Minister and others

June 27, 2008

You’ll know by now that Stuart Wheeler’s judicial review of the government’s refusal to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has failed: here’s the judgment. This is hardly a surprise: it was always a hopeless case. The real surprise will be if he decides to waste his wealth appealing. And of course the wrath [...]

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Blawg radio silence: an apology

June 27, 2008

Sorry you’ve heard so little of me recently: it’s been a busy week, what with lecturing, second marking, visiting philosophy-of-lawyers from Cambridge and other personal stuff. I’ll say a thing or two later today, though.

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In Re P: UK courts may enforce Convention rights within the margin of appreciation

June 18, 2008

The Lords’ judgment in the case of In Re P (Northern Ireland) is an important one on the relationship between the UK courts applying the Human Rights Act 1998 on the one hand, and the European Court of Human Rights applying the European Convention on Human Rights on the other. The issue at stake is [...]

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Peter Hain’s question at PMQs

June 18, 2008

Why on earth is anyone waiting anxiously for the result of the run-off “election” in Zimbabwe? If people there are brave enough to dare to vote for the MDC (and resourceful enough to get round all the barriers Mugabe will put in their way), and the MDC actually wins, then of course I’ll be delighted. [...]

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Abu Qatada to be freed (sort of)

June 17, 2008

Following his successful appeal in April, it’s being reported now that Abu Qatada is about to be released on bail. I wouldn’t have thought you’re likely to bump into him in the street, though, since he’s got to stay at home for 22 hours a day. He’s also banned from reading Head of Legal (or [...]

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R v Malik: lyrical terrorist wins her appeal

June 17, 2008

I can’t link to the Court of Appeal judgment yet: I will when it’s available. But Samina Malik’s conviction under section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 has been quashed, on the basis that the jury may have become confused about the scope of the provision. Some of the evidence put before them was material [...]

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HMRC v Annabel’s

June 17, 2008

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has given an important judgment about tips, service charges and the national minimum wage: it has ruled that restaurant employers who make inadequate wages up to the minimum wage level by redistributing service charges and tips to waiting staff via a “tronc” system act unlawfully. Essentially a tronc works by tips [...]

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