I am pleased to host this guest post by Rebecca Penfold of St John’s Buildings and Aparna Rao of 5 Paper Buildings. ___________________________________________________________ The death of George Floyd has sparked a wave of protests from Minneapolis to Manchester, Los Angeles to London. Never before has the international community been subject to such restrictions as those…
Read moreGuest post by Jaime Campaner: The Spanish government’s fight against fake news: who will watch the watchers?
I am pleased to host this guest post by Dr Jaime Campaner, criminal lawyer and professor in procedural and criminal law at the University of the Balearic Islands. ————————– The Spanish Ministry of Justice has recently announced a review of the legal mechanisms to guarantee the right to receive trustworthy information. Any initiative to strengthen…
Read moreGuest post by Joanna Hardy: I’m an online lawyer now. Can you hear me?
“I haven’t met the defendant, Your Honour,” I tell a screen in my kitchen. Silence. “Can… can you hear me?” My words echo through the judge’s laptop in a courtroom three miles away. I hear them again in prosecution counsel’s dining room. My client, who has never set eyes on me before, sits in a…
Read moreGuest post by Aparna Rao: Why the decision to quash the conviction of Cardinal Pell might strike lawyers as troubling
I am pleased to host this guest post by Aparna Rao, of 5 Paper Buildings, published in response to yesterday’s guest post by Edward Henry QC, which argued that the approach taken by the High Court of Australia in allowing the appeal of Cardinal Pell was one that the England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)…
Read moreGuest post by Edward Henry QC: Reflections on the case of Cardinal Pell
I am pleased to host this guest post by Edward Henry QC, of QEB Hollis Whiteman, reflecting on the case of Pell v The Queen [2020] HCA 12, and what the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) in England and Wales can learn from the High Court of Australia. ————————– On 7th April Cardinal Pell was cleared by the…
Read moreCOVID 19: A PROTOCOL TO ASSIST SOLICITORS WHO ARE WORKING REMOTELY AND ADVISING SUSPECTS IN RELATION TO POLICE INTERVIEWS
I am pleased to publish a protocol for solicitors advising suspects at police stations during the COVID-19 crisis. It has been drafted by Keir Monteith QC, Lucie Wibberley, Patrick Roche and Vicky Meads. The starting point is no one should put themselves at risk…. the opening paragraph states: We need to act now to protect the lives of solicitors…
Read moreGuest post: Open Letter to Leaders of the Criminal Justice System – Call for a National Protocol
I am delighted to host this guest post by Beheshteh Engineer, a third-six pupil. The views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of her chambers. Why is a functional Criminal Justice System important during a national crisis? During a short-term national crisis, the CJS must provide two key functions: To deal with…
Read moreGuest post by Laura Hoyano: Terminology does matter: ‘believe the victim’, investigative mindsets and unlearned lessons from miscarriages of justice
I am delighted to host this guest blogpost by Laura Hoyano, a barrister and Senior Research Fellow at Wadham College, Oxford. On 18 December 2014, Detective Superintendent McDonald of the Metropolitan Police (MPS) declared to the media that ‘Nick’ had made “credible and true” allegations of child murder and horrific abuse against a deceased Prime Minister,…
Read moreGuest post by Joanna Hardy: We need to talk about lunchtime
A few years ago, a poster was stuck up in the robing room at Snaresbrook Crown Court. There was to be a charity raffle. The prize? “Win lunch with the Snaresbrook Judges!”. This prompted much mirth. An unimpressed barrister scrawled beneath it “Second Prize: TWO Lunches”. Another quipped that they would rather eat their own…
Read moreGuest blogpost: Why we should accept the deal
I am pleased to host this guest post from a junior member of the criminal Bar, who argues why we should vote to accept the deal arising out of the Criminal Bar Association’s negotiations with the government. I’m a junior criminal barrister. I’m not a member of the CBA Executive, nor associated with them. This post was…
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