Clik here to view.
Alan Turing: the stain should not be erased
The government has said it will support Lord Sharkey’s bill aimed at giving a posthumous statutory pardon to Alan Turing for an offence under section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. Here’s...
View ArticleThe niqab ruling: my detailed comments
Here’s Monday’s ruling by His Honour Judge Peter Murphy, that a female Muslim defendant at Blackfriars Crown Court may not give evidence wearing a niqab, or face veil. If you click on the highlighted...
View ArticleEven in a niqab, the defendant must be heard
I’m no friend of the niqab. It’s the symbol of an oppressive ideology, and I look forward to its disappearance from the streets of Britain (which I think likely in my lifetime) and everywhere. I doubt...
View ArticleJohn Cooper QC on the Global Law Summit: “By going there, we are tacitly...
The Criminal Bar Association’s acceptance of an invitation to speak at the government’s Global Law Summit next month is “pandering” to the Lord Chancellor’s “political opportunism”, John Cooper QC...
View ArticleAnonymity for rape suspects: my piece for Independent Voices
Today the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee published a report following its short inquiry into police bail. As part of that report the committee recommended that, just as those who say they’ve...
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What’s wrong with the Psychoactive Substances Bill?
All kinds of sensory experiences can affect thinking and impair judgement. Drinking, obviously; the inhalation of cannabis; and perhaps even the sight of a new Home Office bill. The Psychoactive...
View ArticleAnd another thing … (about the Psychoactive Substances Bill)
One of the things some people claim shows the bill is “badly drafted” is the way exemptions are written for caffeine and alcohol. Our newly-elected government aren’t the brightest bunch. Psychoactive...
View ArticlePsychoactive substances: Labour’s February 2015 amendment to the Serious...
Anyone following the progress of the Psychoactive Substances Bill (the general principle of which which be debated on Second Reading in the House of Lords tomorrow) may be interested in this amendment...
View ArticleOf course the DPP must not resign over Janner
The CPS has announced that Lord Janner is to be prosecuted for child sex offences alleged to have been committed between 1963 and 1988. This follows a review by David Perry QC under the Victims’ Right...
View ArticleLaw and the killing of Reyaad Khan
This afternoon in the House of Commons the Prime Minister told MPs that Reyaad Khan, the “Islamic State” fighter from Cardiff, was killed in Syria in a targeted RAF drone strike. His death was reported...
View ArticleIf you think it was murder, say so
How many articles and blogposts have referred to Orwell’s classic essay Politics and the English Language? Well, here’s another. I’m put in mind of it by recent use of the sinister phrase...
View ArticleThe strange, slow death of the criminal courts charge
The criminal courts charge is, or was, one of the less well thought-through criminal justice reforms of recent years. Since April this year, courts have had a duty under section 21A of the Prosecution...
View ArticleJulian Assange’s submission to the UN working group
We awoke to the extraordinary news that Julian Assange had announced he’d leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London tomorrow and submit to arrest if the UN working group on arbitrary detention turned down...
View ArticleThe UN working group’s Assange opinion
Here’s the opinion of the UN working group on arbitrary detention, which has concluded that Britain and Sweden have arbitrarily detained Julian Assange. It calls on both countries to release him, and...
View ArticleAnonymity for rape suspects: my piece for Independent Voices
Today the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee published a report following its short inquiry into police bail. As part of that report the committee recommended that, just as those who say they’ve...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What’s wrong with the Psychoactive Substances Bill?
All kinds of sensory experiences can affect thinking and impair judgement. Drinking, obviously; the inhalation of cannabis; and perhaps even the sight of a new Home Office bill. The Psychoactive...
View ArticleAnd another thing … (about the Psychoactive Substances Bill)
One of the things some people claim shows the bill is “badly drafted” is the way exemptions are written for caffeine and alcohol. Our newly-elected government aren’t the brightest bunch. Psychoactive...
View ArticlePsychoactive substances: Labour’s February 2015 amendment to the Serious...
Anyone following the progress of the Psychoactive Substances Bill (the general principle of which which be debated on Second Reading in the House of Lords tomorrow) may be interested in this amendment...
View ArticleOf course the DPP must not resign over Janner
The CPS has announced that Lord Janner is to be prosecuted for child sex offences alleged to have been committed between 1963 and 1988. This follows a review by David Perry QC under the Victims’ Right...
View ArticleLaw and the killing of Reyaad Khan
This afternoon in the House of Commons the Prime Minister told MPs that Reyaad Khan, the “Islamic State” fighter from Cardiff, was killed in Syria in a targeted RAF drone strike. His death was reported...
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