Welcome to Without Prejudice recorded last night at the offices of Preiskel & Co LLP with Carl Gardner, author of the Head of Legal blog and David Allen Green, solicitor and legal correspondent of The New Statesman.
- Labour’s “Leveson” bill, and what the editors have been up to in Downing Street;
- the government’s proposals on extending marriage to same-sex couples – and the relationship between the Church, bishops and the law;
- the Justice and Security Bill (or “secret courts bill”), due to have its second reading in the Commons next week;
- the government’s proposed changes to judicial review procedure;
- the Law Commission’s consultation on the law of contempt of court, and
- Sir Desmond de Silva QC’s review into Pat Finucane’s murder, and the possibility of prosecutions.
[…] #WithoutPrejudice podcast: Leveson – Gay Marriage – Justice & Security – Contempt – Finucane [Charon QC] […]
Good discussion as always.
1. On same sex marriage – how do you know that then public are overwhelmingly in favour of it?
2. House of Lords – some simple reforms could have been made had the government scaled down its reform Bill rather than dropping it altogether.
3. In civil litigation ALL court proceedings must be under the ultimate control of the judiciary. If this is not the case and also seen to be the case then confidence in the whole process is lost.
The Justice and Security Bill has good points regarding vastly improved oversight of the security services. This aspect if often overlooked.
4. I am afraid that jurors are treated by the lawyers as buffoons ! If we want good juries then we need to trust them more and stop the threats to imprison etc.
5. It is a good point that Inquiries are not necessarily a panacea. One of the problems with the Finucane case is that the Inquiries Act 2005 was itself criticised severely by Judge Cory. Hence, using that Act to establish an inquiry will probably be doomed to failure. (Please see my recent blogpost on this).
Off topic (forgive me!) but overheard in a robing room earlier this week: ‘I sent off four Coco Pops coupons and two Rice Krispies coupons and got my higher court rights. Suspected as much …
As someone who has been empanelled on juries in around 10 criminal cases, I can state, without violating my oath, that the idea that juries bring all their general experience, knowledge and prejudices to bear when deciding their finding is alive and well. The spirit of Edward Bushell (http://www.constitution.org/trials/bushell /bushell.htm) lives on.