Commentary

Guest post by Barbara Rich On 11 October 2017, this headline appeared on the BBC news website. The story naturally aroused a lot of interest and discussion. The traditional need for formality (two witnesses present at the same time to witness the signature of the person making the will) in creating a valid will is… Continue reading

Guest post by David Burrows Child’s involvement in proceedings: ‘child’s perspective’ United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) Art 12.1 requires that signatories (of which the UK is one) “shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in… Continue reading

Guest post by James Keeley The rule of law keeps us from chaos. It accepts who we are as human beings embracing our ethnicity, our sexuality and our abilities as well as our limitations. Through it we are given the chance to speak freely so long as we do so without prejudice and without harming… Continue reading

The concept of “no fault divorce” has gained traction in recent years, but the recent case of Owens v Owens and the image it conjures up of a wife trapped in a loveless marriage has concentrated people’s minds on the issue. As the case heads towards a further appeal hearing in the Supreme Court, David… Continue reading

Continuing his series discussing the impact on family law and practice of legal developments in other areas, David Burrows considers the effect of legal professional privilege in the context of advice given by lawyers to those engaged in family law disputes and the circumstances in which the right to confidentiality of such advice may be… Continue reading

It’s not often that Doritos, a corn-based tortilla-chip snack food, make it into the legal news, but they did so recently with quite a zing. Paul Magrath investigates.   The excitable Daily Mail headline read almost like a headnote: ‘Gold digger’ in her twenties who married a school lollipop man, 76, forged his will and… Continue reading

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… Continue reading

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

Continuing his series discussing the impact on family law and practice of legal developments in other areas, David Burrows considers the origins of the legal aid statutory charge in an old common law remedy developed in cases by reference to which the statutory provisions should still be construed. Human Rights Act 1998 damages and legal… Continue reading