Blog

News, analysis, comment and updates from ICLR's case law and UK legislation platform

Parliamentary privilege and the rule of law

David Burrows explains how parliamentary privilege was designed to stop the courts interfering with Parliament, not to allow parliamentarians to interfere with the work of the courts. He considers Lord Hain’s use of the privilege to trump a court injunction in the light of a recent speech on the matter by the Lord Chief Justice. Continue reading

Weekly Notes: legal news from ICLR-15 April 2019

In this last roundup of the Hilary Term, we look at the latest law and policy stories including Brexit, Assange’s extradition, the Brunei boycott, legal aid and divorce myths and new crimes on the statute book. But who is the seasonal sacrificial lamb? Continue reading

Book review: Doing Justice by Preet Bharara

In a fascinating and instructive memoir, the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, famed as the ‘Sheriff of Wall St’, explains the role and functions of a public prosecutor and recalls some of the most interesting cases of his career. Continue reading

Weekly Notes: legal news from ICLR - 1 April 2019

This week’s roundup of legal news and commentary takes a slight detour into the realms of folly, looking at all the week’s stories that might have been an April Fool’s Day jest, but actually weren’t. Hold onto your hats - unless you’re throwing them into the ring of course. (Updated edition.) Continue reading

Lord Wilson and human rights

David Burrows considers the massive gulf in the approaches to human rights of two jurisdictions – the United States and the United Kingdom – that share a common law legacy. Continue reading

It’s Alive! Launching ICLR&D

It gives me great pleasure to launch ICLR&D, ICLR’s legal information lab. The development of the lab has been about eight months in the making and I want explain at outset what we’re trying to do and why. Open innovation with primary law needs a jumpstart in England and Wales Whether you want to call Continue reading

‘Guidance’ as law

David Burrows considers the status of judicially-issued practice guidance in the hierarchy of judge-made and statutory law, and questions its use as a shortcut for more formally generated procedural rules.
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