Features

Chris McWatters talks to Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division, about the modernisation of family justice . 

Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division since January, is in defiant mood. He has been tasked with a wholesale modernisation of family justice to reduce delay, the scourge of children’s proceedings. And he isn’t going to tolerate pessimism from family justice professionals who think that, for a variety of reasons, this just can’t be done. 

Ali Naseem Bajwa QC and Terry McGuinness examine port stops carried out under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000  

In June this year, journalist Glenn Greenwald published in The Guardian newspaper the first of a series of reports detailing US and British mass surveillance programmes, based on documents obtained by the National Security Agency whistleblower, Edward Snowden. On 18 August, Mr Greenwald’s partner and occasional assistant, David Miranda, flying via London from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro was stopped at Heathrow Airport under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Mr Miranda was detained for nine hours, questioned and had various items of electronic equipment seized from him. The link between Mr Greenwald’s publications and Mr Miranda’s detention is undisputed. 

As QASA, the assessment of advocates by the judges before whom they appear, is finalised, Lord Carlile suggests a scheme by which the judges themselves are inspected . 

All of us at the Bar have stories about the behaviour of judges. Many are about exceptional brilliance, kindness and courtesy: there is little doubt that the overall quality of the judiciary at every level compares favourably with any other jurisdiction in the world. It is not always so, however: for example, in my early days on the Welsh Circuit there was a ferociously able (both words used literally) judge who, while reaching the correct decisions, reduced not a few barristers to tears, and witnesses to jelly. The trial outcomes were rarely challengeable, but the means of reaching them were sometimes unacceptable. 

Job title
Head of chambers of 37 Park Square Chambers, Leeds. 

37 Park Square Chambers is a leading North Eastern Circuit set, specialising in the core areas of family law, criminal and civil common law. 

You are one of a few elite female QCs at the Bar, and in a further select of female heads of chambers. Do you feel the Bar is improving in supporting women through the profession?
I was fortunate enough to come to the Bar at a time when the real trailblazers had paved the way for female practitioners like myself. Lorna Cole, who was the first female barrister on the North Eastern Circuit, was a real inspiration for many of us who came after her. When she joined circuit she had to eat her meal separate from the men and completely alone in the entrance hall to the venue! Hearing stories like that provided real inspiration for me. 

Andrew Otchie reflects upon the Commercial Court’s approach to granting an anti-anti suit injunction  

The jurisdiction to grant a final injunction to prevent the breach of an arbitration clause is provided by s 37(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981, which confers upon the court a general power to grant injunctions “in all cases in which it appears to the court to be just and convenient to do so”. 

As party conference season approaches, all the political parties are jockeying for position, as Toby Craig reports  

Later this month, we are expecting the second legal aid consultation, which will quickly absorb the collective minds of the legal profession once again, after an all too brief hiatus. But, of broader interest outside our immediate concerns, Westminster Watchers will be casting their eyes to Glasgow, Brighton and Manchester as party conference season begins again. As the penultimate showcase annual gatherings before the next general election, these are taking on increasing significance as the lines of division between the parties are drawn up, redrafted, polished and set in the run-up to 2015. 

We live in a world of the personality cult where urban rats being represented by thugs will rarely win the day.  

August 12, 2013: “It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how you place the blame.” Oscar Wilde  

We are now on a charming Scandinavian cruise. Idyllic, and yet…There is something about a barrister’s life that makes holidays more stressful than work. My own theory is that it is adrenalin withdrawal: so many hormone surges occur during trials. Holidays, on the other hand, are contrast-free and can become just a tiny bit boring. Nevertheless, I was plain exhausted after the trial of Jason Grimble, who, together with Moses Lane, allegedly murdered Claude Allerick, sometime one of Her Majesty’s less popular circuit judges and former member of Gutteridge Chambers. 

Professor Dominic Regan outlines the implications of the newly introduced batch of civil litigation reforms.  

Jackson was just the beginning. The arrival of fixed litigation costs in fast-track injury work, from 31 July 2013, represented another enormous shift and there is plenty more in the pipeline. How does the future look for civil practitioners? It is a common myth that the focus is upon injury. Not so. 

The new BSB Handbook is less prescriptive, focusing more on what the outcome of a rule should be, rather than trying to define how a barrister should act in every situation. Ewen Macleod explains  

The current Code of Conduct, which defines how barristers practise, was first created by the Bar Council almost a decade ago. While many rule changes have been implemented over the course of the last 10 years, its basic underpinning framework remained the same. 

Libyan law student, Aya Rida Luheshi gives an eye witness account of events leading up to the revolution in 2012, the subsequent overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi and the emergence of the new Libyan State.  

My name is Aya Rida Luheshi. I am from Libya and I live in Tripoli, the capital. I study at the faculty of law and I am in my third year. My ambition is to be an ambassador for Libya in a European or Asian country. The main subject that I am going to write about in this  article, is how the Revolution affected life and my legal studies at that time.