Press regulation Royal Charter, final draft: my detailed comments on the new provisions

I’ve spent some time looking at the final draft of the Royal Charter – so I want to share my thoughts with you. If you click the bottom left of the viewer, you’ll see in fullscreen view, highlighted, the key changes made since the original draft last March and be able to click again to […]

UK Supreme Court judgment: Cadder v H.M. Advocate

The Supreme Court has given judgment today in this case about whether Scottish criminal suspects must have the right to a lawyer when being questioned in the first hours after they’re arrested and detained, a right which legislation currently doesn’t give them. Or more strictly perhaps, it’s about whether evidence obtained through questioning is admissible […]

Legal advice at the police station – French and Scottish style

It used to be common in England to suggest that criminal justice was better in France or in Scotland. Well, each is another country, and they do things differently there. I’ve absolutely no doubt some of their laws are better. But as far as rights at the police station are concerned, they’re struggling to keep […]

Beware of legal Francophilia

It’s a good story, and I agree with Simon Jenkins about the connected problems of police ineffectiveness and lack of traditional social restraints in Britain. No doubt the story is true, and perhaps things are better in France. But I’m always sceptical of this sort of thinking because a recurrent fancy of British writers about […]