In recent days, the news has carried reports of business owners who have been fined tens of thousands of pounds after defying the “Covid regulations” and refusing to close their business premises. Common to these cases is a belief expressed by the individuals that they were not bound by the snappily-titled Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions)…
Read moreFake Law: An evening with Joshua Rozenberg QC, Joanna Hardy and The Secret Barrister
Tonight I had the privilege of appearing on a panel with Joshua Rozenberg QC and Joanna Hardy, at a live event for the Human Rights Lawyers’ Association. My words were voiced by the wonderful Joanne Kane. Should you wish to watch the discussion, it is available here:
Read moreWhat can be done to appeal an unjust acquittal?
It was reported this morning that Lissie Harper, the widow of Pc Andrew Harper, has written to the Prime Minister asking for a retrial of her husband’s killers, who at their trial last week were acquitted of murder and convicted of manslaughter. There is also a petition, signed by over 200,000 people, seeking a similar…
Read moreThe truth about the government’s claims to have “ended the rough sex defence”
Following a lot of media coverage of this issue, I wrote a Twitter thread looking at the law behind it. I’ve reproduced it here in case it’s of interest. Postscript: Unforgivably, I suggested in the thread that R v Brown was a Court of Appeal decision when, as every first-year law student knows, it was…
Read moreThe UK government responded to Black Lives Matter – by protecting statues
I have written something for The Guardian about our politicians’ rush to create new criminal offences protecting statues. The piece can be found here.
Read moreGuest post by Rebecca Penfold and Aparna Rao: Covid-19 and the right to protest
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 moreDoes it matter that Quiz got the law so hopelessly wrong?
Last week, ITV premiered the three-part drama Quiz, based on the real-life story of the “coughing Major” Charles Ingram (who, despite his popular title, in fact engaged in no coughing himself), and his wife Diana, who along with co-conspirator Tecwen Whittock were convicted at Southwark Crown Court in 2003 of procuring the execution of a…
Read moreTelevising sentencing remarks is a gimmick that has not been thought through
As somebody who spends more time than is healthy banging the drum for better public understanding of the justice system, today’s announcement from the Ministry of Justice that sentence hearings in the Crown Court will be televised should be right up my wheelhouse. The proposal sidesteps any worries about a rush to an Americanised celebrification…
Read more10 things you should know about the London Bridge attacker and “early release”
No time can be afforded in 2019 to respect the dead. Not when there’s an election at stake, and the tantalising prospect of scoring cheap political points winks coyly at you from a special advisor’s email. So it is that, within 24 hours after the killings by Usman Khan at London Bridge, politicians have lined…
Read more“Life means life for child killers” – the truth behind the headlines
There used to be a time, once Chris Grayling had hung up his butcher’s apron at the Ministry of Justice and Theresa May ushered in a quieter, more respectful justice strategy of wanton neglect, that I wrote about something other than Boris Johnson. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister keeps booting the justice football around the pitch…
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