Features

Counsel’s reviewers partake in the fare provided by the Inns of Court’s bars and restaurants.  

St Clements Cafe & Bar, Middle Temple 

Names: Iain Milligan QC and Brian Lee
Positions: Head of Chambers and Senior Clerk
Chambers: 20 Essex Street 

The BBC drama Criminal Justice 2 raised important social issues, believes James Woolf  

Last year I reviewed Criminal Justice for this magazine (see (2008) Counsel September, p 38). Its screening led to a public row between the Bar, and Peter Moffat, former barrister and writer of the series. Tim Dutton QC, last year’s Bar Chairman, accused the BBC of a woefully inaccurate depiction of the Bar, in particular because of the huge chasm between the on-screen barristers’ ethical practices and the actual Code of Conduct. Moffat’s response was to say that this was an overreaction, adding “[Timothy Dutton QC] wants to see things in black and white. At the Bar, just as in life, standards are all too often a different colour – grey.” My own view was that the series closely missed out on being brilliant because of these moments of implausibility. To cut a long story short, Moffat won a Bafta, the Bar forgot all about it and time marched on. 

Desmond Browne QC argues that the law of privacy should provide equal protection to both private citizens and celebrities 

In recent months there has been much debate whether we have gone too far in protecting rights under art 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950  and along the way sacrificed too much of our freedom of expression under art 10. But whilst our new domestic law of privacy protects (perhaps even excessively) celebrities against the media, it is paradoxical that there remain concerns about the adequacy of the citizen’s protection against the State. Should not the same Convention right be protecting both? 

All Souls’ Day, 2009: “For a dream cometh through the multitude of business ...” (Ecclesiastes 5:3) 

The day began with that dream. I was arriving at the Bailey. The fact it was a bronze gothic castle did not strike me as incongruous. Despite efforts to get to my courtroom via the lift, the machinery kept depositing me in some bizarre attic. Eventually, I had to crawl through what the Star Trek series called a “Jefferies Tube” (aficionados – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferies_tube) until I entered my courtroom through the roof. Then I noticed that I was dressed in my ceremonial Silks’ costume with crucial bits, such as my breeches, half my tights and one buckled shoe, missing. 

Patricia Atkinson explains the joy of being a winemaker in the Dordogne.  

On the morning of 3 September as your alarm clocks roused you from your beds for another day at the office or in court, over here in South West France I had already been up since 4am. It was the first day of my vendange (grape harvest) and the culmination of a year’s hard work in the vines. 

The pro bono case of Compton—challenging a decision to close a local hospital—has clarified the law relating to protective costs orders. Guy Opperman explains why pro bono work really can make a difference.  

A court case is like a battle. And a test case, involving nine hearings and 12 judges over two years, is the mother of all military campaigns. So it was with the pro bono epic that culminated in the various decisions in R (on the application of Compton) v Wiltshire Primary Care Trust (see [2008] EWCA Civ 749).  Pro bono provides assistance for those who are unable to afford legal representation. This case in its various forms took two years and multiple hearings. What began as a case protesting about the closure of hospital units in Wiltshire developed into a test case on the extent to which ordinary citizens can use protective costs orders (“PCOs”) to challenge decisions of public bodies. 

Is the creation of the new UK Supreme Court a triumph of form over substance? William East investigates 

With the new Supreme Court opening last month, and countless programmes, speeches and articles on the new-found separation of powers in the British constitution, the weary reader has had to endure rather a lot of Montesquieu. For it was this now rather better-known French philosopher who, in his essay The Spirit of Laws, is credited with outlining the principle of the separation of powers for the first time. A mere 261 years later, with the opening of the new court, we are said to have avoided the apocalyptic scenario in which: “There would be an end of everything, were the same man or the same body, whether of the nobles or of the people to exercise [the] three powers, that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and of trying the causes of individuals.” 

16 October 2009: “One of the signs of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.” — Bertrand Russell 

I have become very concerned about swine flu or Influenza H1NI, to use its proper name. First, I dislike the name: it sounds rather “dirty”. I prefer geographical names, such as Spanish Flu, which have a dash of romance to them. Guadalajara Flu would sound much better in my view. However, this is not my real concern. It is the way in which anyone who succumbs to the illness, or indeed nearly any other politically inconvenient medical emergency, is said to be suffering from “underlying health problems”. 

Melissa Coutinho reports on the Employed Bar Conference.  

Hogarth’s painting of St Paul’s impassioned plea before Felix in the Old Hall at Lincoln’s Inn provided a fitting backdrop to the Employed Bar Conference on 21 July entitled “One Bar – thriving by Unity.”