Features

With government in the choppiest of political waters, can the British constitution provide a suitably stable platform? Mark Elliott analyses the implications of the general election  

That the general election was – ostensibly if spuriously – called in order to facilitate ‘strong and stable’ government is well known. So too is the fact that the plan backfired in spectacular fashion. There are rich seams to be tapped here both by contemporary political commentators and, in due course, historians of ill-judged election campaigns. But what might the lessons and implications of the 2017 general election be from a constitutional perspective? In particular, are recent events evidence of – or likely to precipitate – not just political, but constitutional, instability? 

With the start of Brexit negotiations drawing closer David Wolchover argues that the Prime Minister has not triggered Art 50 of the Treaty on European Union  

On 29 March Sir Tim Barrow delivered a letter from the UK Prime Minister Theresa May to European Council President Donald Tusk purporting to give notice under Art 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union of Britain’s decision to quit the EU. 

With integrity at the heart of the Bar, dilemmas often arise. Rachel Langdale QC calls to mind the guiding hand of the Ethics Committee, assisting barristers in the heat (or calm) of a crisis. Ellie Cumbo offers an insight into a year at the other end of the helpline  

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]