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is important that government and ministers understand and respect
the vital independence of our judiciary
By Lord Goodlad, Chairman of the
House of Lords Constitution Committee
The House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution
which I chair, was formed in 2001 in response to a recommendation
by the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords. It
is unusual among committees in that it performs a dual role: scrutinising
legislation and conducting longer policy inquiries into matters
of constitutional importance. 
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The Wood Review: Tough Love for the BVC
By Richard de
Friend, Director, College of Law, London, Bloomsbury
The Panel
established by the BSB to review the BVC and chaired by Derek Wood
QC published its report in July 2008, and all stakeholders –
regulators providers, practitioners, prospective students and those
advising them – are now getting to grips with its recommendations. |
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Moves in mediation:
confidentiality, the EU Directive and regulation
By Tony Allen, Solicitor, Mediator and Director
of CEDR and Professor Karl Mackie, Barrister, Mediator and Chief
Executive of CEDR
Confidentiality is at the heart of the mediation process.
Because parties feel safe from commercial exposure or assumptions
of weakness drawn from signals of readiness to compromise, they
attend mediations, parties talk directly to each other in a way
that litigation makes virtually impossible. |
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Fears
over the future of the court service and concern over justice budget
cuts
By Paul Marsh, President, Law Society of
England & Wales
The reports in October 2008 of
cutbacks at the Ministry of Justice are the latest measures taken
by the Government to reduce the expenditure on the justice system
as a whole.
These are not the first budget cuts which are likely to have an
impact on the workings of the justice system in England and Wales. |
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Enhancing
the Participation of Children in Family Proceedings
By Nicholas Crichton, District Judge, sitting
at the Inner London Family Proceedings Court
The issue of whether or not children
should have the opportunity to play a greater part in proceedings
where decisions will be made which will affect the rest of their
lives is becoming the subject of increasing debate . |
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Review of the Public Access rules
Christopher Gibson QC, Bar Standards Board
The public access scheme allows
lay people to instruct barristers directly, without the need for
the involvement of a solicitor or other professional client. The
scheme is limited in the areas that can be covered and the different
sorts of work that must be done by both barrister and client. There
are currently over 800 barristers offering public access services
to a wide range of clients in different areas of practice |
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Witness Anonymity under the spotlight
By Tim Dutton QC,2008 Chairman, Bar Council
The right of every defendant to ‘know and see’ his accusers
has been a pillar of our justice system because it prevents those
with a grudge from falsely accusing defendants with impunity. This
has become particularly prevalent in cases which have emerged from
police campaigns which target gun crime and gang culture |
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When Memory is the Evidence: Key Points from the Science of Human
Memory
By Professor Martin A. Conway, Institute
of Psychological Sciences, University of Leeds
It is not unusual to encounter
cases where the only evidence are accounts of what are claimed to
be memories. This frequently occurs in cases of historic sexual
abuse but can occur in many other types of case too |
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A
new Framework for Plea Negotiation in Fraud Cases
By Stephen
Hockman QC, Head of 6 Pump Court Chambers
The management of long and complex fraud cases has for some years
been a concern in our legal system. The Lord Chief Justice’s
Protocol already requires the prosecution and defence to resolve
issues and agree evidence where possible prior to the trial. Formal
Criminal Procedure Rules encourage this and build opportunities
for discussions into the court timetable. |
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Call to ban magistrates from sending minor offenders to jail
By Carol Hedderman, Professor of Criminology at the University of
Leicester
Anyone who questions whether we need to be sending quite so many
people to prison risks being labelled soft on crime and being more
concerned with the rights and needs of offenders than the rights
and needs of victims.
The National DNA Database:
crime solving tool or violation of civil liberties?
By Sir
Bob Hepple QC, FBA, Emeritus Master of Clare College and Emeritus
Professor of Law, University of Cambridge.
DNA profiling has had a dramatic
impact on the detection and prosecution of crime. But this rapidly
developing technology has also given rise to many concerns, for
example the indefinite retention of DNA samples from those who are
not charged or are acquitted;the
irrevocability of consent given in fraught circumstances by victims
and witnesses.
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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? . |
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