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

Weekly Notes: legal news from ICLR — 1 May 2017

This week’s roundup of legal news and commentary includes last minute legislation, legal services, law in the movies, and a survey of judgment opening lines. If there’s a theme, it’s “sieze the day” —or: fame may not be the spur, but don’t spurn it. Legislation Washup and Go Parliament was prorogued last week, to use the Continue reading

Weekly Notes: legal news from ICLR — 25 April 2017

We mark the end of the Easter law vacation and the start of the new term with an update of legal news and commentary including the British and French elections, the fate of pending legislation, legal services regulation and a fatal ruling from SCOTUS. Legislation The fate — and fatality — of bills Theresa May’s Continue reading

The legacy of LASPO

It is four years since the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 came into effect, on April Fool’s day 2013. The Act itself was passed five years ago. Its effects, as we predicted at the time, have been seismic. Image: The Manifesto of Justice (from UK General Election 2015) The policy behind the Continue reading

Bad Faith Bunnies – A bitter/sweet Easter Tale

Weekly Notes, the ICLR roundup of recent legal news and commentary, is currently on holiday. We’ll resume publication in the next law term, which begins on Tuesday, 25th April. In the meantime, here’s an Easter-flavoured tale from the archives of the Business Law Reports (Bus LR). It’s all about that most festive of confections, the chocolate Continue reading

Weekly Notes: legal news from ICLR — 10 April 2017

This week’s roundup of legal news and commentary includes some of the sillier aspects of Brexit, along with judges behaving boldly, and a clearer view of transparency in the family courts. As the phoney war cools in Gibraltar the real one hots up in Syria. Brexit No feel for ‘no deal’ The Exiting the European Union Committee Continue reading

Weekly Notes: legal news from ICLR — 3 April 2017

This week’s roundup of legal news and commentary is mainly about Brexit and what’s been happening – or not happening – in the courts, here and abroad. Brexit Trigger warning On 29 March, some 9 months after it had been mandated by the ‘will of the people’ as expressed in the EU referendum, Theresa May Continue reading

Gavels to be used in English courts

Thanks to a controversial amendment to the Prisons and Courts Bill 2017, judges in England and Wales may soon be using gavels just like their American counterparts. The amendment has been put forward by the cross party Legal Heritage Committee of the House of Lords. It is said to be supported by a 2015 academic Continue reading

Is reporting EU case law now a waste of time?

Brexit will have a decisive effect in altering the relationship between the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU or ECJ) and that of England and Wales, but it would be a mistake to assume that European case law will shortly become irrelevant. Paul Magrath comments on the forthcoming Great Continue reading

McKenzie Friendly fire?

The controversy over so-called ‘professional’ or paid McKenzie Friends  flared up again last week. Paul Magrath reports on what is often a regulatory minefield. Image from McKenzie Friends Marketplace website A new outfit, called McKenzie Friends Marketplace (MFM) has been set up by Fraser Matcham, a second year law student in London, as a sort of Continue reading