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Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

The late US law Professor Paul Miller reflected recently that Beethoven, Stephen Hawking and Elton John were examples of individuals whom, if they had been tested for serious genetic conditions at the start of their careers, may have been denied employment in the fields in which they later came to excel. Earlier this month the [...]

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Civil liberties and the coalition have been happily filling the political pages this week. The damning conclusion of the Joint Committee on Human Rights that there is no evidence to justify expanding closed proceedings (expertly dissected by Rosalind English earlier in the week) vied for column inches with leaks that the Government planned to introduce [...]

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Last month I was asked to provide a witness statement to the Leveson Inquiry into Culture, Practice and Ethics of the Press. You can download the entire statement here, The questions in bold are those asked by the Inquiry in their request – read part 1 here. On similar topics, I also recommend the statements of Francis [...]

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The UK Supreme Court began tweeting yesterday as @UKSupremeCourt to deserved international fanfare. Some even speculated that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition fate could now be revealed on Twitter. The court is already being followed by almost 4,000 Twitter users (for the uninitiated, that is a lot) and has already beaten its own Twitter policy’s [...]

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Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change v. Friends of the Earth and others, CA, 25 January 2012, read judgment  So, after an anxious wait for the affected businesses, the Court of Appeal has confirmed today that the Minister was too hasty in the way he went about modifying the scheme for subsidising small solar power [...]

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The Government of the United States of America -v- O’Dwyer, Westminster Magistrates’ Court – Read judgment It seems appropriate, on the day when Wikipedia shut down for 24 hours to protest against US anti-piracy legislation, to talk about piracy (in the copyright sense) and what role human rights law has to play in the perpetual battle [...]

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1 Crown Office Row’s Philippa Whipple QC was leading counsel to the Gibson Inquiry. She is not the writer of this post  The Justice Secretary has told Parliament that the Gibson Inquiry tasked with considering whether Britain was “implicated in the improper treatment of detainees, held by other countries, that may have occurred in the [...]

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R (on the application of (1) Homesun Holdings (2) Solar Century Holdings (3) Friends of the Earth) v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change , Mitting J, 21 December 2011, hearing in the CA 13 & 16 January 2012  Avid readers of this blog (posted unpromisingly between Christmas and New Year) may recall this successful challenge to [...]

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British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) & Anor, R (on the application of) v Ahmad (Rev 1) [2012] EWHC 13 (Admin) – Read judgment The High Court  ruled  that the Justice Secretary’s refusal to grant the BBC permission to have and to broadcast a face-to-face interview with terrorism suspect Babar Ahmad was unlawful. The BBC and one [...]

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AMP v Persons unknown – read judgment If you lose your mobile phone with highly confidential and private information on it, all may  not be lost. The unscrupulous finder may be prevented from blurting its contents all over the web, even if the identity of that person is unknown to you or the court. It [...]

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A recent United Nations Human Rights Council report examined the important question of whether internet access is a human right.   Whilst the Special Rapporteur’s conclusions are nuanced in respect of blocking sites or providing limited access, he is clear that restricting access completely will always be a breach of article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil [...]

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R (on the application of (1) Homesun Holdings (2) Solar Century Holdings (3) Friends of the Earth) v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change  Admin. Ct, Mitting J, 21 December 2011, extempore judgment, so no transcript available This successful challenge to a proposal to modify subsidies for solar power arose out of the decision [...]

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You don’t need to be a brain scientist to see that lawyers would benefit from a more sophisticated understanding of the human brain. Neuroscientists seek to determine how brain function affects human behaviour, and the system of law  regulates how those humans interact with each other. According to a new Royal Society report, lawyers and neuroscientists [...]

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Ali Zaki Mousa v Secretary of State for Defence & Anr   [2011] EWCA Civ 133   - read judgment Philip Havers QC of 1 Crown Office Row represented the respondent secretary of state in this case. He is not the author of this post. The Court of Appeal has ruled that the Iraq Historic Allegations [...]

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Updated |Today marks a minor landmark for open justice. For the first time, a public inquiry is being  shown live over the internet. The Leveson Inquiry into Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press has taken over Court 73 in the Royal Courts of Justice, so when Counsel to the Inquiry Robert Jay QC begins [...]

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