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Whilst many of us would prefer not to dwell on 2020, it was a year that produced many interesting decisions. In Episode 134, Michael Spencer and Jon Metzer talk to Emma-Louise Fenelon about the cases they consider to be 2020’s most significant landmarks.
On Wednesday 30 December, the UK parliament passed Boris Johnson’s trade and cooperation agreement with the European Union. Professor Catherine Barnard of Cambridge University is continuing her series 2903 CB. Everyone agrees this is a bit of a thin deal – as Catherine predicted – but is it a good deal?
As Catherine said, the negotiating team has delivered on sovereignty. There’s no reference in the text to the CJEU or EU law. On the other hand, there’s very little about services of any sort in the deal. This is because the UK was so keen not to be subject to the European Court of Justice, so it was not looking for concessions in this area.
The document is a daunting 1246 pages long – but the first four hundred odd are the meat of the deal, and in Episode 133 Professor Barnard delivers a succinct and truly helpful summary of what she calls a “Canada minus” free trade deal.
Covid, clinical negligence, quarantine, lockdown, inquests, nerve agents, algorithms, child abuse, coercive and controlling behaviour and racism. What’s there not to like in our smorgasbord of favourites from the past eleven months?
Worry not: there are laughs to be had. A bee bothers a bureaucrat with solemn consequences for subordinate legislation in a motion of regret debate.
In her judgment of 27th February 2020 Hilder J laid down certain rules regarding what a property and affairs deputy can and cannot do in relation to seeking legal advice and taking steps in litigation. In these joined cases the deputies applied to the COP seeking orders for authorised expenditure of the protected persons’ estate for their costs in obtaining legal advice and conducting proceedings on P’s behalf.
The Senior Judge’s conclusions are set out in her summary at the end of the judgment. In Episode 131 of Law Pod UK Amelia Walker of 1 Crown Office Row discusses some of the salient issues in this comprehensive “one stop shop” ruling with Rosalind English.
Artificial intelligence (AI) aims to mimic human cognitive functions. It is bringing a paradigm shift to healthcare, powered by increasing availability of healthcare data and rapid progress of analytics techniques. Robert Kellar QC of 1 Crown Office Row joins Rosalind English in the latest episode of Law Pod UK to answer some pertinent questions about the application of AI in healthcare and what it means for clinical negligence and other forms of litigation and regulation in medicine.
Will we come to a point when healthcare providers will be under a duty of care to use Artificial Intelligence? At some point the argument is likely to be raised that the advantages of AI are so stark that it would be illogical or irresponsible not to use it. What would this mean for the Bolam test? And for the courts – a judge hearing a clinical negligence case where the issues turn on algorithms may need to be more familiar with computer programming than with medical practice.
Hear these and more fascinating and not too far fetched points in discussion in Episode 130.
The Public Law Project is an independent national charity carrying out research, policy work, training and legal case work to promote the rule of law, improve decision making and facilitate access to justice. The PLP takes no position on the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
Joe is Research Director at the PLP. He is also Senior Lecturer in Public Law at the University of York. He researches widely on public law, and particularly the administrative justice system and his work has been published in leading journals and cited by a variety of bodies, including the Ministry of Justice, the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Rule of Law, and the House of Commons Library. His work, with Professor Robert Thomas, on administrative review will also form the basis of a Law Commission project.
Alexandra is a Research Fellow at the Public Law Project and a PhD student at the London School of Economics Faculty of Law. She has worked as a judges’ clerk at the New Zealand High Court and as a barrister in Auckland, New Zealand. She was awarded the Cleary Memorial Prize by the New Zealand Law Foundation in 2015 for showing outstanding promise in the legal profession.
David Anderson will be well known to listeners. He is a barrister at Brick Court Chambers and a Cross Bench Peer. Following him on twitter @bricksilk is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in public law.
For those interested in public law more generally, signing up to the Public Law Project mailing list is also worthwhile.
In Episode 128 Emma-Louise Fenelon talks to Marina Wheeler QC about the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, better known as the Cumberlege Review, which investigated the response of England’s healthcare system to patients’ reports of harm from drugs and medical devices.
Since the report was published in July (available here), the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has indicated it will be taking a number of steps in response to the review (more information here). In recent weeks a number of questions were tabled asking what the government plans to do next in response.
The episode includes a discussion about consent, and reference to Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board[2015] UKSC 11
Find an article written by Marina Wheeler QC and Amelia Walker on the Cumberlege Review on page 5 of Issue 6 of the 1COR Quarterly Medical Law Review (QMLR).
ELF are acting for acting for local residents in the Forest of Dean on a translocation of pine martens from Scotland. They discuss bats, other protected species and relative success of the introduction of beavers to the British Isles with Rosalind English.
Through a collaboration with the Environmental Law Foundation we bring you Episode 126, a panel discussion with environmental experts Mark Avery and Nikki Gammans in discussion with Carol Day, consultant solicitor with Leigh Day. This is the first instalment of two of these panel discussions.
A plethora of reintroductions of various species have been making the news recently, with such charismatic species as White Sea Eagles and Red Kites. Dr Mark Avery from Wild Justice discusses with Carol Day how well these projects are working. They also strike a note of caution about the proposal to reintroduce Hen Harriers in the south. Dr Nikki Gammans of the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust talks about the reintroduction of the Short Tailed Bumble Bee. This species as taken to New Zealand in colonial times, and the population remained there after it went extinct in the UK. The Bumble Bee Trust is running a project to bring them back to this country.
In her latest episode Professor Catherine Barnard of Cambridge University comments on the transition period towards Brexit since the Withdrawal Act was implemented by the government in January this year when we formally left the EU. It was this act that the Internal Market Bill was set up to amend, and it’s the Internal Market Bill that’s been debated in Parliament. Listen to Catherine Barnard on the difficult border problems and other issues in our repost of 2903 CB.
The Russian political dissident Alexei Navalny is still in an induced coma in a hospital in Berlin after being poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok on a flight from Siberia to Moscow on the 20th of August. The last time we heard of this lethal organophosphate was two years ago when two Russian residents in Salsibury, Wiltshire, survived an assassination attempt. Dawn Sturgess, who lived eight miles away, was not so lucky. She died after spraying herself with a discarded bottle of the poison which she thought to contain perfume.
At her inquest, the senior coroner declined to extend the scope of his investigation to the involvement of the Russian state in her death as collateral damage to the assassination attempt. Her family took judicial review proceedings to challenge his conclusion. They were partially successful; the court said the although the coroner couldn’t state, in terms, that the Russian state was liable in civil or criminal law, he could still investigate that matter. They reverted the matter to him. Read the judgment of the Administrative Court on the 24th of July here.
The senior coroner, who must now ask if answering how Ms Sturgess died requires him to look at involvement of Russian state. In the latest episode of Law Pod UK Rosalind English discusses the broader implications of this case with Matt Hill of 1 Crown Office Row. (Apologies – due to a technical error, the wrong episode was posted under “The Salisbury Poisonings” yesterday. The correct episode is now in place.
After a summer hiatus, Law Pod UK returns with an interview with Joshua Rozenberg who will be well known to listeners as a legal commentator, journalist, and presenter of the BBC’s Law in Action.
This interview was recorded the day after the Home Office released a post on social media suggesting that “activist lawyers” were abusing regulations by delaying and disrupting returns of migrants. The Law Society and Bar Council both condemned the video, and it has since been taken down by the Home Office, see here.
The recent New Zealand High Court decision concerning the lawfulness of the first 9 days of lockdown in New Zealand here (for an analysis, see UK Human Rights Blog article here.
Read more about Simon Dolan’s challenge to lockdown, represented by Philip Havers QC, here.
Listeners can avail of 20% discount on the retail price of Joshua Rozenberg’s book, linked onJoshua’s bloghere.
The recent ruling by the Supreme Court that the former leader of Sinn Féin had been unlawfully detained and convicted in the 1970s has elicited some severe criticism from high places, including former Supreme Court judge Jonathan Sumption. Matt Hill of 1 Crown Office Row discusses this case with Rosalind English in the latest episode of Law Pod UK. Matt has worked on a number of cases relating to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He was involved as an in historian on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, was junior counsel to the Inquiry on the recent Birmingham pub bombing inquests, and has written about the use of inquiries and inquests in dealing with the legacy of the Troubles. The discussion focusses on the so-called “Carltona” principle regarding the responsibility of ministers to consider each function of administration. Lord Sumption has said that the Supreme Court ruling in the Adams case has “left the law in an awful mess”.
After something of an hiatus occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic, we are delighted to welcome Catherine Barnard back onto our podcast with her clear and informative account of the legal steps towards Brexit.
In the latest episode of her podcast 2903cb, Professor Barnard talks to journalist Boni Sones about the latest in the trade talks. What is happening with the timetables and deals to get the UK out of the EU by the end of this year? Tune in to Episode 120 of Law Pod UK to find out.
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