Features

Sentencing judges are obliged to make their own enquiries before sentencing a defendant with special needs to prison. John Cooper analyses the recent case law 

Name: Peter Rouse
Position: Director
Company: Bar Select 

“Getting on Board”, a charity who places professionals on the governance board of local organisations, has seen a surge in applicants from the Bar. Paul Rand explains what new trustee volunteers can expect 

Sam Clyndes, who worked as an intern at the Mississippi Office of Capital Defense Counsel, highlights the problems facing defendants in death-penalty cases.  

What is the road to judicial killing in the state of Mississippi, where I spent three months on an internship with Amicus, the charity which assists in the provision of legal representation for those awaiting capital trial and punishment in the US, at the Office of Capital Defense Counsel (“OCDC”)? 

Lara Maroof looks at the misuse of expert virological evidence in HIV prosecutions 

What are the functions of the Inns of Court in the 21st Century? Robert McCracken QC presents his case 

Perhaps the first and fundamental feature of the Inns of Court is that they are associations of members, and aspirant members, of a learned profession. The second is that they all have certain core facilities. These include a dining hall, library, garden, quiet courtyards and chambers for professional and residential use in a tranquil atmosphere removed from the noise and pollution of the metropolis outside. 

Martin Bowley QC reviews the 2009 season 

Fawcett’s Commission on Women and the Criminal Justice System recently published a report identifying institutional sexism in practice. Laura Prince considers their proposals to improve court proceedings, and to deal with the under-representation of women at the Bar and in the judiciary.  

Over the last five years Fawcett’s Commission on Women and the Criminal Justice System (“the Commission”) has examined the experiences of women as victims, offenders and workers in the criminal justice system (“CJS”). Their final report, Engendering Justice – from policy to practice, was published in May 2009. It concluded (p 7) that: “The experiences of women within the CJS provide countless examples of institutional sexism in practice through processes, attitudes, and behaviour which amount to discrimination which disadvantages women.” 

16 July 2009: “When sorrows come, they come not single spies But in battalions” – Hamlet. 

The Crime Writers 

The skills a barrister acquires and the atmospheric backdrop of the Inns of Court have been fully utilised by barristers writing legal-detective fiction, finds Sunil Tailor