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Split decision - rehearing ordered in 'Twitter joke trial' appeal

"The two judges who heard the case have been unable to agree. A split of this kind is highly unusual – the most recent example that we are aware of is the case of Sheldrake v DPP [2003] in October 2002..."

29 May 2012 | 13:21

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inner image Courting publicity? The Supreme Court’s open door policy

"Three things in particular tend to surprise new visitors to the three-year-old Supreme Court. The first is that there are no secret tunnels to Parliament, which comes as a great disappointment to many school groups. The second is that the Justices s...

24 May 2012 | 13:20

inner image Blogging, SEO and law firms - is it time to get on board?

"Of course, a blog may not be the answer to all your problems and it mightn’t be appropriate for every firm. But to assume that blogging is only for smaller firms is a mistake..."

24 May 2012 | 13:19 | 2 comments

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Would the Beecroft reforms really make a difference to Britain’s economy?

"Really, the Beecroft report is simply a list of all the employment laws that Adrian Beecroft and the people he talked to don’t like. Nothing more. It’s classic Politics of I Met A Man; long on opinion and anecdote, short on data and analysis..."

23 May 2012 | 09:50

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Pressing the case - Sir Stephen Sedley's proposals for statutory media regulation

The Leveson Inquiry has invited evidence and submissions from the public as well as from the core participants. Although not reported widely in the media, last October the recently retired Lord Justice of Appeal, Sir Stephen Sedley, made his own submi...

02 May 2012 | 18:09

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Seesaw commercial law - a tipping point for law firm commercial departments?

Clients who five years ago had no in-house lawyers now have one or two. Clients who five years ago had one or two in-housers now have six or seven. Clients therefore keep most regular commercial work in-house and even when they do outsource it, client...

02 May 2012 | 18:02

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Was Jeremy Hunt’s handling of the News Corp-BSkyB deal unlawful?

This week's big news was the relevation at the Leveson Inquiry of the e-mails from Frederic Michel to his NewsCorp colleagues about his contact with Jeremy Hunt, or at least with Jeremy Hunt’s special adviser, while Hunt was preparing to decide whet...

25 Apr 2012 | 15:22

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New media, new rules - does the Ched Evans case highlight a need for new laws?

"Law isn't a shield preventing a bad thing happening - it cannot stop people behaving in a certain way; it can only simply prescribe a punishment or remedy should people behave in a certain way..."

23 Apr 2012 | 13:31 | 1 comment

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On camera - what impact will televised court proceedings have on justice?

Television cameras were recently allowed to record the sentencing of David Gilroy in the High Court in Edinburgh. This was the first time that sentencing in a UK court has been filmed for broadcast the same day - normally proceedings in Scotland are o...

19 Apr 2012 | 11:41

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Sold: why the sale of the College of Law may have a global impact

"What I would expect the College to seek to do is to establish itself as a globally recognised provider of legal education that transcends (as far as possible) national boundaries..."

18 Apr 2012 | 09:29

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The real hunger games - CARE's GC on the West Africa food crisis

Driving from Niger's capital Niamey to the town of Konni for five hours through the sand-swept, arid Sahel region, I listened to the audio book The Hunger Games. The novel opens with a scene of bleak poverty in a post-apocalyptic town called District ...

13 Apr 2012 | 16:49

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Secret evidence proposals – time to reflect

On 19 October 2011 the Government published its proposals to extend closed procedures, as set out in its Justice and Security Green Paper (and covered by the post on this blog). On 1 December 2011 I expressed the following concerns

12 Apr 2012 | 17:16

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Jail for Muamba Twitter abuse - was 56 days imprisonment justified?

Liam Stacey - a 21-year-old student - was recently sentenced by a District Judge (Magistrates' Court) to 56 days imprisonment for his tweets in relation to Bolton Wanderers footballer Fabrice Muamba. The Guardian reported that Stacey entered a guilty ...

11 Apr 2012 | 14:51 | 1 comment

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Terror suspects can be extradited to the US, human rights court rules

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting as a Chamber, has found that five men accused of serious terrorist activities can be extradited from the UK to the US to face trial. They had argued that their Article 3 rights (Article 3...

11 Apr 2012 | 14:32 | 1 comment

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Not so special relationship - overhauling the 'unbalanced' UK/US extradition treaty

Earlier today the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee published a report on the US-UK extradition treaty. A further report on the operation of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is expected later this year. Both reports emerge from curious circu...

30 Mar 2012 | 17:34

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