Features

David Wurtzel meets Lord Justice Laws, the 2010 Master Treasurer of Inner Temple, and finds philosophy, politics and the law are closely interrelated 

Anthony Paphiti argues that the decision in Al-Saadoon and Mufdhi v UK could mean that armed forces engaged in nation building tasks are saddled with the responsibility of guarding prisoners on behalf of a non-ECHR host nation. This, he says, may hamper the conduct of operations.  

On 2 March 2010 the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”), 4th Section, handed down its opinion in Al-Saadoon and Mufdhi v UK (App No 61498/08) (2010) Times, 10 March. The decision has hampered the conduct of operations for armed forces of Council of Europe States, especially those engaged on nation building tasks arising in the aftermath of conflict, which seek to restore the institutions of government and law and order. 

Are the criminal courts the best place for intellectual property owners to protect their rights, asks Alex Stein 

In January 2010 Alan Ellis was unanimously acquitted of a charge of conspiracy to defraud based on his activities as creator and supervisor of the peer-to–peer (“P2P”) file sharing website oink.cd. He was the first person to be prosecuted for such activities in the UK. The website which operated between 2004 and 2007 utilised BitTorrent technology allowing members to share files (mainly music but with some books) between themselves. The site was by far the most popular UK based file sharing site. It generated around £150,000 in donations, attracted in the region of 600,000 members and facilitated 21 million downloads. Ellis, who was only 21 when he started the site, ran it from his bedroom in shared student digs. 

Supermarkets now supply the bulk of wine bought for home consumption.  

Dominic Regan and Seán Jones highlight some of the best champagne and wine. 

William Hotham recently completed an internship in Ghana helping create a training programme to sensitise law enforcers to human trafficking. He assesses the UK’s record in this area.  

According to the International Labour Organisation about 12.3 million people worldwide are in forced labour, bonded labour, forced child labour or sexual servitude at any given time. Anthony Steen MP recently reported that “more people are trafficked in the world every year than were ever in chains in the 350 years of the African slave trade.” 

Name: Ann Buxton
Position: CEO
Chambers: Hardwicke 

30 April 2009: DIARY ATTACHMENT SUPPLEMENT/SALUTARY LESSONS/When deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake (Book of Job). 

With your help, we can ensure that we are working in all our members’ interests, writes Desmond Browne QC.  

The Bar Council’s Member Services team came into existence last summer with one goal, to provide tangible benefits to the Bar and make our personal and professional lives that much easier. Already this past autumn the team has been testing the temperature to see how best they can support the Bar community. 

John RWD Jones and Dr Misa Zgonec-Rozej discuss the UN asset-freezing regime which recently came under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court.  

The first case heard by the Supreme Court, A v HM Treasury [2010]UKSC 2, [2010]2WLR 378, dealt with the UN Security Council’s (“UNSC”) counter-terrorism measures – namely (a) the sanctions regime against Al-Qaida, the Taliban and associated persons and entities and (b) measures of a general nature provided in UNSC resolution 1373 (2001) to prevent and suppress any acts of terrorism. 

The Bar Council is seeking views on the introduction of contractual terms as the standard terms for barristers accepting instructions from solicitors in privately funded matters. Sarah Asplin QC explains why the current system is unsatisfactory.  

Members of the Bar will recall that the Bar Council had been negotiating with the Law Society over many, many years with a view to introducing contractual terms as the standard basis on which barristers accept instructions from solicitors. These terms would replace the present usual terms, namely “The Terms of Work on which Barristers offer their Services to Solicitors and the Withdrawal of Credit Scheme 1988” (as amended), and the rarely used 2001 contractual version of those Terms, which are replicated in Annexes G1 and G2 of the Bar Code of Conduct.