November 2012

Without Prejudice: the Leveson report

November 30, 2012

Without Prejudice returns – today from Gray’s Inn - to discuss the Leveson report and political reaction to it. Charon QC chairs as media lawyer and journalist David Allen Green, mature law student (and Without Prejudice sound consultant!) Jez Hindmarsh and I talk about: the legal basis of the inquiry; Leveson’s recommendations for a new kind of press self-regulation; the nature of [...]

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We must have statutory regulation – and liberation – of the press

November 28, 2012

If you’re interested in legally minded reports about how the press should be regulated, then there’s something you should read before tomorrow. Sir David Calcutt QC’s 1993 Review of Press Self-Regulation is worth another look, nearly twenty years on. In 1990, Sir David chaired a committee on privacy and related matters, which recommended a toughening [...]

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Nick Herbert: accommodation with Strasbourg is a pipe dream

November 28, 2012

In his Kingsland memorial lecture last night, hosted by Policy Exchange, the former justice minister Nick Herbert MP argued that Britain should “leave the jurisdiction” of the European Court of Human Rights. This was an argument he trailed in a piece he wrote for ConservativeHome last week on the day of Chris Grayling’s statement on prisoners’ [...]

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Draft Voting Eligibility (Prisoners) Bill

November 22, 2012

Here is the government’s draft bill offering Parliament a menu of options on prisoners’ votes. <a href=”http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/522486/voting-eligibility-prisoners-draft-bill.pdf”>Draft Voting Eligibility (Prisoners) Bill (PDF)</a> <br /> <a href=”http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/522486/voting-eligibility-prisoners-draft-bill.txt”>Draft Voting Eligibility (Prisoners) Bill (Text)</a> Adam Wagner at the UK Human Rights Blog wondered what if any significance there might be in the that fact that the “status quo” [...]

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Chris Grayling’s statement on prisoners’ votes

November 22, 2012

The Justice Secretary’s Commons statement on prisoners’ votes today was interesting in more ways than one. First, he’s chosen to put forward a draft bill for pre-legislative scrutiny – rather than a fully-fledged bill. I’m not sure why that’s necessary: when the government proposed in late 2010 to legislate for prison votes, it seemed to [...]

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Danny Nightingale’s court martial – the transcript

November 20, 2012

Here’s the transcript of Danny Nightingale’s Court Martial earlier this month, which was published on the Judiciary’s website. I’m grateful to John Moss for drawing it to my attention. <a href=”http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/521033/transcript-of-court-martial-in-the-case-of-danny.pdf”>Transcript of Court Martial in the case of Danny Nightingale (PDF)</a> <br /> <a href=”http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/521033/transcript-of-court-martial-in-the-case-of-danny.txt”>Transcript of Court Martial in the case of Danny Nightingale (Text)</a>

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Danny Nightingale’s solicitor on Dominic Grieve

November 20, 2012

Since my last post on Danny Nightingale I’ve been in touch with his solicitor, Simon McKay. I asked him what he thought about the Attorney’s response to Philip Hammond, and he replied: My view is that the AG has the ability to review the case at any stage since he has supervisory jurisdiction over the SPA [...]

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Danny Nightingale: the Attorney’s right, Hammond was wrong

November 20, 2012

The Attorney General Dominic Grieve has been criticised for refusing to intervene in the case of Danny Nightingale, a soldier who pleaded guilty at a Court Martial recently to illegal possession of a gun and ammunition. Apparently Danny Nightingale’s solicitor intends to appeal, presumably against the sentence of 18 months detention. Grieve refused to intervene [...]

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Lady Justice Arden on proportionality

November 15, 2012

On Monday evening Arden LJ gave the UK Association for European Law’s annual address, at King’s College, London. You can read the speech in the window below. She makes a number of interesting points about differences between the way different courts deal with proportionality – persuasively dishing the idea that it’s a simple, obvious concept. [...]

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Charon QC podcast: Abu Qatada

November 13, 2012

I spoke to Charon QC earlier today, for the seventh report of his Law Tour. Unsurprisingly we spoke about Abu Qatada, the big legal story of the week and something that’s been on my mind since his successful appeal yesterday to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. We discuss yesterday’s judgment of course, whether there’s any [...]

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