Features

Belle Turner reports on the recent YBS seminar “All Change? Or not? For the Young Bar”.  

At this time of great change at the Bar there is some concern as to whether young barristers at a grassroots level are engaged with the potentially career-changing decisions that senior members of chambers may be taking on behalf of their members. There is no small irony that, as a young barrister in a set wishing to become a Legal Disciplinary Practice (“LDP”), for example, the senior members of chambers may profit considerably from the work of the juniors for many years before the juniors themselves benefit. There is a sense in many of the emails which I receive that this wasn’t what people signed up for. 

Dominic Regan and Sean Jones suggest the best restaurants to visit in order to obtain good wine at a fair price.  

You have cause to celebrate. Perhaps you have just been paid for that case you did late last century. The proverbial moron in a hurry can find good wine but the art is to find it at a fair price. Here are some suggestions. 

Dominic Regan and Sean Jones suggest the best restaurants to visit in order to obtain good wine at a fair price.  

You have cause to celebrate. Perhaps you have just been paid for that case you did late last century. The proverbial moron in a hurry can find good wine but the art is to find it at a fair price. Here are some suggestions. 

Simone Paissoni outlines the tax issues involved in owning a property in France 

France is a wonderful country, but complex at all levels, and it excels in its complexity regarding the taxation of real estate.
Anyone who dreams of owning that “petit bijou” in the sun or the city, knows that the costs and duties on purchase amount to six or seven per cent, but what about after completion? What does the new owner have to worry about? What about on sale, or gift or death—how are such events treated tax wise in France? 

The BSB has recently published a consultation paper on its proposals for revisions to barristers’ practising arrangements. Charles Hollander QC and Sarah Brown outline the key themes and explore the challenges ahead.  

The Legal Services Act 2007 (“the Act”) introduces into the regulatory arena the principle of authorisation to practise. In terms of the Bar, this requires new procedures which build upon and extend the current practising certificate regime. The Bar Standards Board (“BSB”) has recently issued a consultation paper on its proposals for authorisation to practise arrangements. 

In Re W the Supreme Court reformulated the approach a family court should take when exercising its discretion to decide whether to order a child to give live evidence in family proceedings. However many questions still remain unanswered,  believes Chris McWatters 

 Most barristers would consider it a travesty of justice if they were not allowed to cross-examine a complainant who had made allegations against their client, especially if those unchallenged allegations were believed by a court. 

Joseph Holmes argues the case for trial by jury in international criminal trials.  

The objective of international criminal justice is, backed by the weight of global consensus, to replace the “culture of impunity” with a “culture of accountability”. However, there is a real danger that the administration of international criminal justice is coloured by political influence. Consider the following basic propositions. 

David Wurtzel believes the cast deftly balances the personal with the political and imitate without mimicking the historical figures.  

“The promise” is the Balfour Declaration of November 1917 which said that the British Government “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. It lies at the heart of Ben Brown’s fine play, performed in the round at the Orange Tree. For much of the action, the floor is covered by a map of the Ottoman Empire. Not the least of the many historical ironies which run through the production is the sight of British ministers, sitting in London, carving up that Empire before the First World War has actually been won. 

The DPP’s guidelines on assisting suicide are welcomed but are unlikely to make a fundamental difference to the way the CPS handles suspects, suggests Nicholas Kazaz 

On 25 February 2010 Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, issued “The Policy for Prosecutors in Respect of Cases of Encouraging or Assisting Suicide”, which sets out the guidelines that must be followed in respect of cases of assisting suicide. 

Siobhan Grey discusses the Gray’s Inn Seminar on press freedom and the Select Committee Report “Press Standards, Privacy and Libel” 

The incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into English domestic law has had a dramatic effect on the perpetual conflict between media freedom and media intrusion into private life; a conflict which is unremitting and which sometimes seems irreconcilable. The rights enshrined in art 8 (respect for private life, including reputation) and art 10 (freedom of expression, including press freedom) are of equal value, but how can a judge strike a fair balance between them? This dilemma has been given greater urgency by the technological developments that are changing the face of the media. An injunction obtained in one national court in one jurisdiction can quickly be rendered ineffective by the new virtual, stateless and unregulated chaos of information exchange, as the Twitter campaign in the recent Transfigura case revealed.