|
| |
 |
 |
|
Legal issues in dementia care: the Nuffield Council’s report
By Jill Peay, Professor of
Law, London School of Economics
The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) sets out how a decision
can be made if a person is not able to make that particular decision
for themselves. It must, however, always be assumed that a person
does have capacity to make a decision, until it is shown that they
can’t.
|
 |
|
A Unified Fraud Prosecution Office—Has a Case Been Made Out?
By Monty Raphael
Fraud
in the UK is now estimated (still not measured) at £30 billion
per annum. The variety of fraud has itself multiplied as delinquent
ingenuity mirrors creativity and risk-taking in the legitimate economy.
At the same time, as we look back 25 years to the Roskill Committee
Report, we remark that a coherent anti-fraud strategy is yet to
emerge. |
|
|
Legal services reforms – some unresolved questions
By Stephen Hockman QC, Head of Six Pump Court
chambers
Regulation
is an inescapable feature of modern society. No longer can any group
of service providers, even a group as ancient and reputable as the
Bar of England and Wales, claim to remain exclusively self-regulating.
A regulatory framework has to be established so as to ensure that
the public interest is adequately protected in the manner in which
barristers provide their service. |
|
Although the Ministry of Justice has spent the last two years reviewing
homicide law, there still remains a serious problem around “one-punch
killers” which means punishment for bad luck, according to:
Barry Mitchell, Professor of Criminal Law
and Criminal Justice, Coventry University Law School
One of the criticisms the writer
and others have of the current law is that it makes it too easy
for a person to be convicted of manslaughter, essentially because
the law pitches the minimum level of culpability too low. |
|
Rights
and remedies
Thom Dyke looks at the scope of housing law
rights and remedies.
In a previous article (see ‘A
Home for Rights’, Michaelmas issue, October 2009) I addressed
the issue of which human rights provisions are most commonly engaged
by housing law issues. The next logical step is to ask who will
be affected by these rights, before then considering what powers
the courts have in respect of supplying an adequate remedy. |
|
Mental health and justice: making rights a reality
By Paul Farmer, Chief Executive, Mind
The The criminal justice system
is currently failing victims and witnesses with mental health problems.
Last year, the influential House of Commons Justice Committee published
their report into the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and identified
mental health as a key area of weakness. They highlighted lack of
support provided to victims and witnesses with mental health problems
during the court process |
|
|
The Jackson review and encouraging mediation development
By Professor Karl Mackie QC and Tony Allen solicitor
Sir
Rupert Jackson’s preliminary report gave relatively little
prominence to ADR. ADR does not feature in its index, and, in relation
to the role of the civil courts, is said to be “by definition,
the antithesis of the administration of justice by the courts” |
|
After the
War on Drugs: A Blueprint for Regulation
By Steve Rolles, Head of Research, Transform
Drug Policy Foundation
Drug prohibition in various forms
has been in place for over 100 years now, its historical roots traceable
back to the temperance movement. This punitive criminal justice-led
approach, premised on the understandable but simplistic concept
that drugs are a threat, therefore we must fight them. |
|
Costs
– a missed opportunity?
By Dr
Michael Arnheim, Barrister, Sometime Fellow of St John’s College,
Cambridge
After a gestation period
of about twelve months, Lord Justice Rupert Jackson’s Final
Report of his Review of Civil Litigation was published in January
2010, a two-volume Preliminary Report having appeared in May 2009.
The Final Report contains some potentially useful recommendations
and some very puzzling recommendations. |
|
|
Are inaccurate media portrayals of the UK legal system adding to
juror confusion?
By Paul Dockery, of 18 St John Street Chambers
Legal dramas
have been a mainstay of the British screen for a number of years.
From Rumpole of the Bailey and Blind Justice through to Judge John
Deed and Kavanagh QC, there’s been no shortage of legal scenes
to keep us entertained. But, how much emphasis should we place on
these and other media representations?
Admissibility of DNA evidence
By Felicity
Gerry, Barrister, 36 Bedford Row .
Reaction is overwhelmingly positive
to news that the first case to be featured on the BBC's Crimewatch
programme has been solved after a DNA profile produced from evidence
at the scene was linked to a family member of the killer on the
national database leading the police to the defendant.Paul
Stewart Hutchinson pleaded guilty to the murder of 16-year-old Colette
Aram and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term
of 25 years
|
|
A
new era dawns: Are we awake?
Andrew Butler, Barrister at Tanfield
Chambers, considers the arrival of the Legal Services Act and what
this means for how barristers should market their expertise, and
reviews his chambers’ experience so far in embracing the new
era. The aim is clear: the Act seeks to encourage change in the
legal marketplace, but how, as barristers, will this affect our
profession? . |
|
|
|
|
