Commentary

Continuing his series discussing the impact on family law and practice of legal developments in other areas, David Burrows questions Sir James Munby’s recent announcement that primary legislation is required to remedy the situation in which the victim of alleged abuse can face cross-examination by their alleged abuser in the family courts in a manner… Continue reading about Family law no island (4): A metwand for family proceedings — common law and vulnerable witnesses

The way the cases have been presented in the Supreme Court this week in the appeals against R (Miller & Anor) v The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2016] EWHC 2768 (Admin) ; [2016] WLR(D) 564 has shown how much court cases can be opened up for the understanding of interested members… Continue reading about Miller: hearing documents and understanding a case in the Supreme Court

In this guest post, Penelope Gibbs of Transform Justice considers the emerging findings of the Lammy review.   The MacPherson report on Stephen Lawrence defined institutional racism as “the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen… Continue reading about Is there institutional racism in the criminal justice system?

Continuing his series discussing the impact on family law and practice of reported cases arising in other areas of law, David Burrows considers contempt of court and limitations of the freedom to report on matters of public interest being litigated in court, particularly where they affect children.   Beyond ‘fair and temperate criticism’ A spectrum… Continue reading about Family law no island (3): Criminal contempt, private lives and children proceedings

Continuing his series discussing the impact on family law and practice of reported cases arising in other areas of law, David Burrows considers some of the implications of the drive for greater transparency in the family courts. Common law: to make sense of the proceedings Transparency of family courts is a real concern for Sir… Continue reading about Family law no island (2): Release of family courts hearing documents

In a series of posts on this blog, David Burrows will be discussing the impact on family law and practice of reported cases arising in other areas of law. As he explains in this introduction to the series, family law is not an isolated, self-contained jurisdiction, but forms part of the general law, with which… Continue reading about Family law: no island entire unto itself

The very fact that criminal cases account for around a quarter of ICLR’s annual coverage is testament to the fact that English criminal law is in a continual state of development and adjustment in the courts. For criminal practitioners, this means continual effort must be applied to keeping track of the ever-changing rules and points… Continue reading about The Criminal Law Update – Autumn 2016

Case comment by Paul Magrath, Head of Product Development and Online Content… Continue reading about Giving a clear and simple judgment: how hard can it be?

Today saw the opening scene of a courtroom drama that looks likely to play out over the rest of the year, if not beyond. Claims have been brought against the government in the person of the Secretary of State for Brexit with a view to obtaining a court ruling on the correct procedure for the… Continue reading about Brexitigation: article 50 in a heatwave – an artist’s impression

In the case of Ewing v Crown Court sitting at Cardiff and Newport [2016] EWHC 183 (Admin); [2016] WLR(D) 62 the Divisional Court confirmed an important feature of the open justice principle: that permission is not needed in order to take notes in Court. Although the Court may, for good reason, withdraw the liberty to… Continue reading about Case Law: Ewing v Cardiff Crown Court, The taking of notes in court does not require judicial permission – Hugh Tomlinson QC