Blog

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

Weekly Notes: legal news from ICLR – 27 November 2017

This week’s roundup of legal news and commentary focuses on marriage and divorce, land ownership, Brexit, and media regulation, plus law and injustice from around the world.   Family law  Divorce reform campaign  The President of the UK Supreme Court, Lady Hale is the latest prominent figure to lend her public support to a campaign to modernise the Continue reading

How Court of Protection judges decide best interests in end of life cases

In this guest post, Tor Butler-Cole explains how judges have approached end of life decisions in recent cases in the Court of Protection. Although aimed primarily at a medical readership, it provides a useful introduction for anyone unfamiliar with this type of case. Prompted by interesting discussions with doctors on Twitter, and because it isn’t possible to Continue reading

Family law: capacity to consent

By David Burrows Consent: mental capacity and understanding What does ‘consent’ mean when applied to such situations as living apart for two years and consenting to a divorce; consent of a birth parent to adoption; or consent to the terms of a pre-nuptial agreement or settlement of matrimonial financial negotiations? This article looks at two Continue reading

Weekly Notes: legal news from ICLR – 20 November 2017

This week’s roundup of legal news and commentary includes criminal dishonesty, police investigations, historic victories in the courts, historic counsel remembered and an extremely historic statute. Plus news good and bad from foreign lands. Crime Dishonesty – what remains of second limb in Ghosh test? A recent Twitter thread prompted a discussion on the effect Continue reading

Flirting with judicial activism? Case comment on David v Hosany

A  judge sitting in the High Court has taken judicial activism to new levels by effectively laying down the law on flirting at work. Or so you might think, after reading a report of one of his judgments in The Times. [Spoiler: he has done no such thing.] In an article entitled “High Court judge Continue reading

‘The Right to Justice’: political slogan or something more sinister?

David Burrows questions the idea that politicians can grant a “right to justice”, as opposed to providing the means of access (such as legal aid) or removing the obstacles (such as excessive court fees) to a right we already have.     The Right to Justice  (Fabian Policy Report, September 2017 ) (the Report) produced by an informal Continue reading

The obsequies of monsters: case comment on Oldham Metropolitan BC v Makin

In this guest post Barbara Rich discusses  the judgment of the English High Court on the disposal of the body and funeral ceremony of Ian Stewart-Brady in Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council v Robin Makin [2017] EWHC 2543 (Ch); [2017] WLR(D) 670   Reginald (“Reggie”) Kray, the survivor of the notorious twin brother criminals who flourished in the East Continue reading

Weekly Notes: legal news from ICLR – 13 November 2017

This week’s roundup of legal news and comment includes online convictions, Brexit confusion, legal reporting and women in law.  But first, here’s a picture of the MOJ. Courts Online prosecutions and HMCTS Reform The HM Courts & Tribunals Service and Ministry of Justice announced last week that using a system developed in partnership with Transport for London Continue reading

The Court of the Future: HMCTS Change Event at MOJ

On 2 November 2017 the Ministry of Justice hosted an HMCTS Public Community Change Event to showcase some of the work being done in the course of its current £1bn overhaul of the court system. Paul Magrath was there. [Post updated 17/11/17.] The Ministry of Justice in St James is an imposing and somewhat dystopian Continue reading

Weekly Notes: Legal News from ICLR – 6 November 2017

This week’s roundup is a bonfire of the vanities of Westminster and a fireworks display of legal news and commentary, including sexual harassment in the workplace, judicial recruitment and support, artificial intelligence in law, the Bar conference, cases reported via Twitter, and a riff upon a beermat. Parliament Billy Bunters and their Bully Banter A Continue reading