Features

In two recent important cases on restitution, Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs v Investment Trust Companies (In Liquidation)  [2017] UKSC 29 (ITC) followed by Lowick Rose LLP v Swynson Ltd  [2017] UKSC 32 (Lowick), the Supreme Court revoked the permissive ‘judicial licence to meet the perceived requirements of fairness on a case by case basis’. What prompted this rebuke and how were matters straightened out, asks Thomas Lowe QC 

Hodge Malek QC & James Potts examine a recent Court of Appeal decision on the ability of (in this case) the special liquidator of a bank to market the bank’s good loans for sale as part of a package containing distressed debt 

Geoffrey Bindman QC reflects on the trial of Socrates & the power of politics to defeat human rights  

Politicians who disparage human rights sometimes give the impression they are dealing with an ill-considered invention of modern left-wing ideologues.  

Campaign in poetry; govern in prose? As Parliament is mothballed, Mark Hatcher examines the main parties’ pledges on justice and the reality behind the rhetoric  

For the past few weeks the Palace of Westminster has felt mothballed.  

All members should feel that chambers is doing their best for them. But how can you check work is being allocated fairly, and how can clerks demonstrate the fact of fairness? Rachel Crasnow QC reports from a seminar addressing these concerns  

On 27 March 2017 a packed house at the Bar Council debated the fair allocation of barristers’ work.  

CONCERT Young Artist Series: Aurèle Marthan (piano) and Charles Hervet (cello)  

Will Brexit reduce London’s dominance as a litigation centre? Michael McParland QC examines the potential impact on use of English jurisdiction and choice of law agreements  

‘One of the attractions of English law as a legal system of choice in commercial matters is its stability and continuity…’ Wood v Sureterm Direct Ltd  [2017] UKSC 24, para [15] 

The Secret Barrister has to dig deep to find the few scraps marked ‘justice’ but unearths four things we can learn from the parties’ pledges  

General election manifesto launches often cast the criminal justice system in the role of the naughty child of Christmas lore.  

As the general election pauses the planned whiplash reforms, Robert Weir QC examines the winners and losers, implications for personal injury litigation and disproportionate impact on the junior Bar  

Twenty years ago, it was commonplace for pupils and new tenants to cut their teeth on crime, family and personal injury work.  

The art of writing a good reference  

‘A critic should be taught to criticise a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author.’ – Oscar Wilde