8 June 2010
UK Human Rights Blog is written by members of 1 Crown Office Row barristers’ chambers. You can subscribe to free email alerts by entering your address in the ‘Email Subscription’ box below and to the right, or follow us on RSS, Facebook or Twitter.
5 June 2010
The European Convention - now it has its own blog page
We have added a new “ECHR” page where you can access an index of the Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The page can be accessed by clicking here, or by clicking on the “ECHR” tab at the top of any page on the blog.
Each Article has its own separate page with the wording of the Article itself and a brief summary of how it works in law.
You can access this summary by clicking on the “more info” link. You can also click on the “posts” link to see all posts on the UK Human Rights Blog relating to that Article. A few articles don’t have a live link “posts” as we have not posted on it yet. We would welcome your comments on this or on any way we can make the blog better.
The index is reproduced below:
Continue reading →
28 May 2010
The recent Old Bailey case involving two boys aged 10 and 11 accused of rape on an eight year gold has reignited the long running debate over the treatment of child witnesses in the adversarial courts system.
In a Daily Telegraph article John Bingham and Caroline Gammell report that
More than 1,000 children under the age of 10 are called to give evidence in courts in England and Wales every year.Almost two thirds are themselves the victims of crime, asked to relive a traumatic experience, often as much as a year after the event. Although special measures are in place to make the ordeal of giving evidence in court less stressful, the current system remains open to criticism.There is no legal minimum age to give evidence in court but prosecutors must be satisfied that a child is capable of understanding evidence and being cross-examined before they can be called.
It should be noted at the outset that evidence from children can only be compelled by the courts in criminal prosecutions. We posted recently on the case of Re W (Children) [2010] UKSC 12 , where the Supreme Court ruled that refusing an application for a child to give evidence in a trial may contravene Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Lady Hale said at para 22 of the judgment:
Continue reading →
20 May 2010
If a terminally ill patient has made a “living will”, specifying in advance that they do not want to be resuscitated, doctors must respect these wishes or risk being struck off. The General Medical Council is to announce this guidance in response to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 which gives “living wills” legal status. Doctors must not follow their own personal or religious convictions by prolonging treatment unless there is evidence that a patient may have changed his or her mind.
Update 25/05/10 – The Guidance has been published and can be found here
If a doctor is unwilling to follow the express verbal instructions of a patient – communicated through a friend or relative as legal proxy — they can withdraw from treating the individual. A second medical opinion must sought before hydration and nutrition is withdrawn. Telegraph Medical Correspondent Kate Devlin reports that
Doctors who flouted the guidelines would be forced to attend a fitness to practise hearing before the GMC and would be struck off if the case against them were proved. The rules affect patients deemed to be mentally capable of making these decisions. If they do not have this capacity, or have not designated someone to act on their behalf, doctors are required to make any judgment about treatment in the best interests of the patient. The guidance says that in these cases, when the decision over end of life treatment is “finely balanced”, the patient’s previously stated wishes “will usually be the deciding factor”.
16 May 2010
Posts you may have missed last week on the UK Human Rights Blog:
Case law –
News –
13 May 2010
We are pleased to announce that the UK Human Rights Blog has joined the new Guardian Legal Network.
The Guardian’s website launches its Legal Network today. This “brings together the best blogs and sites that cover legal affairs and developments from around the world” and we are delighted to have been asked to be a partner in this project.
The Guardian will be featuring content from our blog, and we welcome new followers who have arrived here by this route. You can subscribe to free email alerts by entering your address in the ‘Email Subscription’ box (below and to the right), or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
Update 18/05/10 – our article featured on the new site, and another one here
8 May 2010
Posts you may have missed on the UK Human Rights Blog last week.
News and features:
Case law:
1 May 2010
Posts you may have missed from last week:
Case law –
News –
24 April 2010
UK Human Rights Blog posts from last week that you may have missed
Case law
News
Features
18 April 2010
Recent news posts which you may have missed:
You can also read our archive of news posts here
8 April 2010
It is now nearly 10 years since the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force in October 2000. Its effect on our domestic law has been profound and far reaching and a knowledge and understanding of human rights law is now an essential part of the legal knowledge of all practising lawyers.
1 Crown Office Row’s team of public law specialists have played a prominent part in many of the important human rights cases which have been decided under the Act. They have also been producing the unique 1 Crown Office Row Human Rights Update Service for almost a decade.
As a natural extension of this service, we are now introducing the 1 Crown Office Row UK Human Rights Blog which we believe will provide a valuable and engaging supplement to our update service. So far as we know, it is the first UK Human Rights blog. We hope that you will enjoy using it.
5 April 2010
Our most recent in-depth human rights case comments:
29 March 2010
16 March 2010
This blog is run by 1 Crown Office Row barristers' chambers. Subscribe for free updates here. The blog's editorial team is:
Commissioning Editor:
Jasper Gold
Assistant Editor:
Allyna Ng
Editors:
Rosalind English
Angus McCullough KC
David Hart KC
Martin Downs
Jim Duffy
Jonathan Metzer
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