Features

Child and Youth Justice

There is no longer a presumption against children giving evidence in today’s family courts. Francis Wilkinson examines the recent Family Justice Council guidelines. 

“Guidelines in relation to children giving evidence in family proceedings” was issued by the Family Justice Council in December 2011. A Working Party was set up following the Court of Appeal’s recommendation in Re W [2009] EWCA Civ 644, the case which later went to the Supreme Court [2010] UKSC 12. In his Foreword, Sir Nicholas Wall, President of the Family Division, writes that following the Supreme Court decision, ‘there was no longer a presumption or even a starting point against children giving evidence in such cases’. However, the occasions on which children give evidence of abuse they have suffered continue to be very rare.  In contrast, according to the Crown Prosecution Service, 48,000 children were called to give evidence in criminal proceedings in 2008-09. That had risen from 30,000 in 2006-07.  Why is that? 

Child and Youth Justice

Brenda Campbell and Shauneen Lambe examine the report on the Youth Justice System recently released by the Centre for Social Justice.  

In February 2010, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a think-tank founded by Iain Duncan Smith, launched a review of the Youth Justice System. January 2012 saw the release of the CSJ’s report on the Youth Justice System, “Rules of Engagement”. The thorough and well researched report is the result of 2 years work for the centre, gathering evidence country wide and from a diverse range of professionals. 

Toby Craig prepares for the London Marathon and asks members of the Bar also taking part how they have fitted training around their busy working lives. 

As a child, I spent more than one April morning on the Embankment cheering my dad through another of his five London Marathons. Last year, after a rather long hiatus, I was a spectator once again, this time watching my older brother compete. It’s fair to say that joggers run in my family.  This year, the gauntlet well and truly laid down, it’s finally my turn to tackle the daunting 26.2 miles of the most famous marathon course in the world. A subjective view perhaps, but as far as I’m concerned, New York, Chicago, Berlin and even Marathon to Athens itself have their attractions, but nothing beats London. 

Toby Craig prepares for the London Marathon and asks members of the Bar also taking part how they have fitted training around their busy working lives. 

As a child, I spent more than one April morning on the Embankment cheering my dad through another of his five London Marathons. Last year, after a rather long hiatus, I was a spectator once again, this time watching my older brother compete. It’s fair to say that joggers run in my family.  This year, the gauntlet well and truly laid down, it’s finally my turn to tackle the daunting 26.2 miles of the most famous marathon course in the world. A subjective view perhaps, but as far as I’m concerned, New York, Chicago, Berlin and even Marathon to Athens itself have their attractions, but nothing beats London. 

Big wins or hollow victories? Toby Craig and Charles Hale consider crunch time for LASPO 

The business end of the Bill

As the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill begins to round the bend preceding the home straight, the many months of hard lobbying by a significant and varied number of opponents to the Bill has begun to yield fruit. The Government has been left with a bloody nose after losing a succession of key votes in the House of Lords during the Bill’s Report Stage. What we don’t yet know, is whether that fruit will remain intact or wither on the vine as the Bill returns to the House of Commons, where a more effectively whipped and partisan lobby awaits. 

Putting the pieces together. Toby Craig and Charles Hale try to make sense of how the multitudinous legal issues currently before Parliament fit together.  

Sometimes, one could be forgiven for looking across the political terrain; counting up the multitude of issues being debated and wondering if any of it really makes that much sense at all. It is all too easy to focus on particular issues which, understandably, exercise our minds. But, by stepping back and looking at the broader policy framework, sometimes different perspective develops. 

Hon. President: The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Jackson

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday 28 February 2012
Seminar: “Experts – their use and abuse”
Moderated by The Hon. Mr Justice Akenhead 

Regret at the loss of beauty, simplicity and mystery from language and the unstoppable spread of “lifeless modern civic terminology”

St. Valentine’s Day, 2012: To assume is to presume” Jude Morgan, Indiscretion.

However classless society becomes, you never turn down an invitation from a High Court judge. That covering of scarlet, flashed with white fur and black scarf, still thrills the senses in a way sadly.not achieved by circuit purple. The difference is that the original robes evolved from real costumes worn in a genuine context when the House of Plantaganet was in its final flower. You cannot create uniforms any more than you can create cities...hence Milton Keynes.

Deveral Capps examines the largest review of legal education for 40 years 

It has been over 40 years since legal education as a whole was reviewed in England and Wales. In 1971, the Ormrod review investigated the relationship between the legal profession and universities and considered how lawyers should be trained. The review took three years to complete and has, by and large, led to the system of legal education that we have today. Since then, large-scale reviews of the law, legal practice and legal training have taken place, though these have focused more on the practise of law rather than the training of lawyers. For example in 1979 the Benson Report, or more formally the Royal Commission on Legal Services, gave rise to the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 and in 2004, the Clementi Review led to the Courts and Legal Services Act 2007. 

At the 2011 Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards, Marc Willers received the award for Barrister of the Year. He talks about the practice he has developed and in particular about his representation of Gypsies and Travellers

I was very surprised and truly honoured to receive the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year (LALY) award in 2011. It was a real privilege to be handed the award by Doreen Lawrence who has worked tirelessly to obtain justice for her son, Stephen, and in doing so has forced our society to acknowledge and address institutional racism.