A substantial majority of Special Advocates has felt driven to decline to accept new appointments to the role.  This is a result of the Government’s continuing failure to provide proper support for the controversial system for secret evidence and closed proceedings, avoidably heightening the unfairness that is inherent in such cases.  Special Advocates are the security-cleared lawyers appointed to represent the interests of those excluded from closed proceedings and they are central to the functioning of the system. On 15 April 2024 a group of 25 practising Special Advocat ..read more

The following piece was first published on the UK Constitutional Law Blog on 25 April 2024 and is reproduced here with their permission, for which the editors are grateful Commentary on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act (“RA”), which is shortly to receive Royal Assent, has concentrated principally on its deeming of Rwanda as a safe country whilst ousting the supervision of courts. This post considers a separate issue – section 4 of the Act as it applies to victims of slavery (“VOS”). Section 4 provides a carve out from the Act’s deeming provisions where the Home Secretary con ..read more

Football fans everywhere will be familiar with reckless tackles, whether from their own Sunday league experience or as followers of the professional game. But when will a tackle amount to negligence and be actionable in a civil court, such that an injured player can sue their opponent? In Episode 197 of Law Pod UK, 1COR members Jo Moore and Nicholas Jones join Lucy McCann to discuss how the law of personal injury applies to football. Here are the full citations of cases discussed in the episode: Caldwell v Maguire [2001] EWCA Civ 1054 Wooldridge v Sumner [1963] 2 QB 43 Sharpe v Hig ..read more

In UK News At the conclusion of the inquest into the death of Scott Rider, the coroner described Rider’s treatment in prison as “inhumane and indefensible”. Rider died by suicide in June 2022 after serving 17 years of an “imprisonment for public protection” (IPP) sentence, a form of indeterminate prison sentence. A few weeks before his death Rider told a member of prison staff that he felt as though his sentence had ruined his life and there was no hope of release. IPP sentences were abolished in 2012, but the abolition did not apply retrospectively to those who had already received the sente ..read more

In January this year, the Transparency Implementation Group Reporting Pilot was rolled out to 16 more courts across England.  The pilot works on the basis of a presumption that journalists and legal bloggers may report on what they see and hear during family cases, subject to strict rules of anonymity. In Episode 197 of Law Pod UK barrister Jim Duffy speaks to two experienced 1COR family law practitioners – Richard Ager and Clare Ciborowska. They explore the principles at stake and the on-the-ground impact of the pilot so far. The post Law Pod UK latest: Punching a window on the world of ..read more

Introduction The decision of the Court of Protection in Rotherham and Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust and NR [2024] EWCOP 17 is the latest in a line of cases where the Court has been asked to determine whether a termination of pregnancy is in a woman’s best interests. Any case about a termination engages the pregnant woman’s Article 8 rights. But where the woman also lacks capacity to decide for herself whether to have a termination, there must be a particularly careful analysis to ensure that her rights are respected. While previous decisions have frequently accorded weight t ..read more

In UK news The House of Lords has once again delayed the passage of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill. The Bill returned to the House of Lords for consideration of Commons amendments in what’s known as parliamentary “ping-pong” after the House of Commons rejected a series of safeguards the House of Lords added into the Bill. The House of Lords voted to to reinstate clauses removed by the Commons regarding: Exemption for allies of the UK overseas, such as Afghan service veterans Ensuring that Rwanda is only considered a safe country when the arrangements provided for in the R ..read more

In the News Dr Hilary Cass, Chair of the Independent Review of gender identity services for children and young people, submitted her final report last Wednesday to NHS England.  The Cass Review was commissioned in 2020 to look into the effectiveness of the gender care services provided to young people by the NHS. The report stressed that gender-affirming care is an extremely poorly researched area, and that the “toxicity” of the conversation surrounding transgender identity was severely hampering competent medical care for trans youth. Further research studies commissioned by the review ..read more

In UK News The new and wide-ranging Serious Disruption Prevention Orders (SDPOs) introduced by the Public Order Act 2023 came into force on Friday. As part of the Government’s attempt to ‘crack down’ on protesters ‘dedicated to wreaking havoc’, the police will now be able to apply to courts for an order to place restrictions on protesters’ locations, associations with others, online activity, and more. Breaching an order will be a criminal offence carrying up to six months’ imprisonment and an order can be made against anyone who has previously committed ‘protest-related offences’, including ..read more

Introduction On 6 March 2024 the Supreme Court handed down two separate judgments in the cases of Bertino v Public Prosecutor’s Office, Italy [2024] UKSC 9 and Merticariu v Judecatoria Arad, Romania [2024] UKSC 10. The constitution of the Court for both cases was the same with the judgments written by Lord Stephens and Lord Burnett. Lords Hodge, Sales and Burrows completed the panel. These two appeals both concern Section 20 of the Extradition Act 2003 (“the Act”) which deals with convicted individuals who are subject to convictions in their absence. Trials in absentia are extremely common in ..read more