All articles by Joshua Rozenberg – Page 17
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Two assaults on press freedom have been defeated, but will anything change?
To anyone who follows parliamentary affairs, last week must have seemed a good one for the press. Potential threats to free speech melted away, not just once but twice. But I suspect that we are not much better off as a result.
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Reaction to terrorism judgments has not inspired confidence
Maintaining the rule of law in the face of international terrorism is the greatest challenge our legal system faces. Over the past few weeks, the courts have shown themselves capable of delivering robust judgments. It’s what happened afterwards that inspires rather less confidence.
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Lawyers who merit judicial appointment are not reaching the bench
When I was very young – in 1994, to be precise – I published a book in which I called on the lord chancellor to hang up at least one and preferably two of his three wigs. ‘We would then have an independent speaker in the House of Lords, an ...
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Scottish court ruling raises questions about overturning legislation
Will the courts ever quash an act of parliament? The orthodox answer is, of course, ‘no’ – although there were hints to the contrary in the Jackson case of 2005 when the law lords dismissed a challenge to recent fox-hunting legislation. Earlier this month, though, ...
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When it comes to paying bribes, can the end justify the means?
The biggest reforms to the law of bribery for more than a century will come under detailed scrutiny today as the government’s Bribery Bill begins its committee stage in the House of Lords. You would expect a bill of this sort to criminalise both the person ...
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New laws strengthen the influence of the Law Commission proposals
For a body that exists to promote reform of the law, the Law Commission has surprisingly little legislation that it can call its own. There is little more than a statute enacted in 1965, setting up a body to review the law ‘with a view to its systematic development... simplification ...
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New commission chairman planning to reform adult social care law
The Law Commission is planning ‘very important and potentially very exciting’ reforms to the law on social care for adults, the commission’s new chairman said in an interview for the Gazette. Sir James Munby, who now sits in the Court of Appeal as Lord Justice Munby, ...
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New Law Commission chairman planning to reform adult social care law
The Law Commission is planning ‘very important and potentially very exciting’ reforms to the law on social care for adults, the commission’s new chairman said in an interview for the Gazette. Sir James Munby, who now sits in the Court of Appeal as Lord Justice Munby, ...
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Why newspapers lack interest in court reporting
The name Mike Taylor is not one that many lawyers will recognise, even though he has spent his entire working life writing about the law. In an extraordinary 42 years at the Press Association law courts news service, he reported countless cases in the High Court, ...
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Supreme Courts appointments process - need for change?
Arrangements to fill the 12th seat on the Supreme Court bench should be well under way by now, with no more applications being accepted for the vacancy.
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An online legal information resource will provide a clear advantage
Take the slow train out of Leeds and head west, past Halifax. Just before you leave Yorkshire for Lancashire, you’ll find a picturesque village called Mytholmroyd – which you should pronounce like thyroid, not mistletoe. Climb the steep hill by the Methodist chapel, walk past ...
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Media reaction to the Purdy aftermath highlights a wider ignorance
Has Keir Starmer QC really made it possible for relatives to help loved ones to die without fear of prosecution, as the Times reported? Did the director of public prosecutions issue ‘tick-box guidelines’, as the Telegraph believed?
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Whitehall needs to re-examine how best to use intercept evidence
Three young British Muslim would-be suicide bombers were sentenced to life imprisonment this week for plotting to blow up seven airliners over the Atlantic. Directing that they serve minimum terms of up to 40 years, Mr Justice Henriques called the plot the most ‘grave and wicked conspiracy ever proven within ...
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Separated from parliament, will the Supreme Court become too powerful?
Creating the Supreme Court ‘as a result of what appears to have been a last-minute decision over a glass of whisky’ seems to verge on the frivolous, Lord Neuberger tells me. ‘You muck around with a constitution like the British Constitution at your peril, because ...
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Law lords sit for the last time before moving to the Supreme Court
So farewell, then, law lords. The appellate committee of the House of Lords is sitting today for the last time in 133 years, hearing a short immigration appeal and then delivering seven judgments. On 1 October, the law lords will be transformed into the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
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Challenging debates remain on Islam and English law
The Temple Church is to be commended for its efforts to improve interfaith relations over the past 18 months, even though some of the public meetings it held on Islam in English law did not turn out quite as intended. Since Muslims were well represented among ...
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A tribute: Lord Bingham’s passion for justice and history
For me, last Thursday was Bingham day. I spent the morning interviewing the former senior law lord about a centre for the study of the rule of law to be established in his name. In the afternoon I dipped into a book of essays written in his honour by more ...
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Meinl affair casts shadow over common law jurisdictions
How safe is it for British businesses to invest in Austria? A flying visit this week suggests its response to allegations of white-collar crime leaves a lot to be desired. Despite reforms last year, the relationship between Austrian prosecutors, pre-trial judges and criminal defence lawyers still seems far too cosy.
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Adherence to the rule of law is vital to the 'survival of the world'
With four months to go before he becomes president of the new UK Supreme Court, Lord Phillips is managing to dispel the impression that he is merely a pale imitation of the man who would have headed the court if it had been completed in time, the much-admired Lord Bingham. ...
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ICC's credibility hangs on Palestinian statehood decision
President Obama’s meeting this week with the Israeli prime minister has focused attention on the universal goal of a Palestinian state living peacefully alongside its Jewish neighbour. But there is increasing concern in legal circles that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court risks making the ...