The Law Society Gazette, 22 September 2005

Lord Bingham warns over interference

The senior law lord last week warned the government against undermining judicial independence and affirmed that in protecting human rights and upholding the rule of law, judges would not be bullied by ‘prime ministerial or ministerial diktat’. Lord Bingham of Cornhill criticised politicians who pay lip service to the principle of judicial independence but are slow to accept the reality of it.    

20 September 1995

Lawyer in the news

Who: Imran Khan, 30, lives in East London with his partner and one-year-old daughter.

Why is he in the news? Acting pro bono for the family of murdered Greenwich teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Future plans: Pro bono work at inquests where there is no legal aid.

30 September 1975

Legal Aid - 25th Anniversary

Message from the Lord Chancellor (Lord Elwyn Jones): ‘The cornerstone of our modern provision of legal services is the Legal Aid Scheme. It is therefore a real pleasure for me to draw attention to the 25th anniversary of that scheme. It has been faithfully stewarded by the Law Society and by the many thousands of solicitors and barristers who provide their services under the scheme.’  

September 1955

British subjects – passports

Mr Langford-Holt asked the Home Secretary if he was aware that his immigration officers were demanding to see the passports of British subjects entering and leaving the country; and, in view of the fact that British subjects had a right to enter and leave the country at any time without a passport, provided some adequate form of identification was carried, whether he would now waive the demand for passports to be shown.

The Home Secretary replied that it was necessary for British subjects entering or leaving the country to produce adequate evidence of identity and nationality. In these circumstances, the most readily available evidence was a valid passport.

September 1945

Notes of the month

A woman solicitor, Alderman Mary Sykes, is to be the new Mayor of Huddersfield. She will be the first woman to hold that office. Miss Mary Elaine Sykes was admitted in 1923 and practises in Huddersfield.

(In November 1922 Mary Sykes became the fourth woman to be admitted to the roll.)

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