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Last Friday the UK Human Rights Blog and Law Pod UK Committee and contributors celebrated a fantastic year at 1 Crown Office Row with Vermouth tasting and prize-giving. We were delighted to be joined by special guests David Prest and Simon Jarvis from Whistledown Productions, as well as former 1COR member, Wendy Outhwaite QC.
After speeches about how both the blog and the podcast have grown from Commissioning Editor Jonathan Metzer and Law Pod UK Presenter Emma-Louise Fenelon, Wendy Outhwaite QC gave out gifts of her sparkling Ambriel wine and John Gimlette’s ‘Elephant Complex‘ to our rounders-up Eleanor Leydon, Conor Monighan and (in absentia) Thomas Hayes. Founder and co-presenter of Law Pod UK Rosalind English was also thanked for all her hard work with both blog and podcast.
Thank you all for coming and looking forward to 2019!
ARB v IVF Hammersmith & Another [2018] Civ 2803 (17 December 2018) – read judgment
Legal policy in the UK has traditionally prohibited the granting of damages for the wrongful conception or birth of a child in cases of negligence. In this case the Court of Appeal has confirmed that this bar is equally applicable to a wrongful birth arising from a breach of contract.
The facts of the case are set out in my podcast on the first instance decision (Episode 12 of Law Pod UK). Briefly, an IVF clinic had implanted the claimant father’s gametes into his former partner without his consent. This occurred after the couple had sought fertility treatment at the clinic resulting in the birth of a son some years previously. Following standard practice, the clinic froze five embryos made with their gametes. Subsequently, the couple separated. Some time after this separation the mother, R, attended the clinic without ARB and informed the staff that they had decided to have another child. The form requiring consent from ARB for thawing and implanting the embyro was signed by R, and the clinic failed to notice the forgery. R went on to give birth to a healthy daughter, E, who is now the sibling of ARB’s son. There is a Family Court order confirming parental responsibility and shared residence in respect of both children. Continue reading →
“No negligence where the doctors disagree” – used to be the approach of the courts to expert evidence in medical cases. That deference has eroded in recent years.
Rosalind English talks to James Badenoch QC, who acted for the claimant Montgomery in the the most recent Supreme Court case on informed consent in medical cases.
Law Pod UK will be following up the debate on Bolam expert evidence in future episodes.
Law Pod UK is available for free and without ads on Audioboom, iTunes, PodBean, The Podcast App or wherever you get your podcasts.
But what happened in the courts? Oh what an adventure it has been, dear reader. Strap on your seat belts and join me as we take a whistle-stop tour through 10 of the biggest legal battles of the last year.
2018 provided much food for thought for those practising in inquest law, with significant judgments on the burden on proof in suicide, on scope in relation to the Birmingham pub bombings, on causation in relation to medical negligence, on the relevance of non-causative findings to the record of inquest and on costs. In the most recent episode of Law Pod UK I am joined by Jeremy Hyam QC, who provides a whistlestop tour of this year’s the most significant cases.
Citations for cases mentioned on the podcast and links to related blog articles written by members of chambers are contained below, as is a brief analysis of R (Paul Worthington) v HM Senior Coroner for the County of Cumbria[2018] EWHC 3386 (Admin), a decision which was unfortunately handed down too late for consideration in the podcast episode. The episode is a available here.
In the latest episode of Law Pod UK Rosalind English talks to Catriona Murdoch of 1 Crown Office Row about Global Rights Compliance, an organisation offering a unique approach to atrocity crimes and other violations of international law. The Hague-based GRC works in partnership with The World Peace Foundation (‘WPF’) to combine expertise on conflict and food insecurity. Together they are identifying how international law may be used to advance the prevention, prohibition and accountability for mass starvation.
Law Pod UK is available for free and without ads on Audioboom, iTunes, PodBean,The Podcast App or wherever you get your podcasts.
In her analysis of the decision Suzanne refers to: the control mechanisms established by the House of Lords in Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire[1992] 1 AC 310, the House of Lords decision in Page v Smith[1996] 1 AC 155 and the decision of the Court of Appeal in A Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v Ronayne [2015] EWCA Civ 588. Continue reading →
As part of our continuing collaboration with Professor Catherine Barnard of Cambridge University, we now have her latest episode on the Political Declaration on the withdrawal deal: Episode 55 of Law Pod UK. Towards the end of her 15 minute interview with Boni Sones Catherine talks about the Wightman reference to the CJEU from the Scottish Court of Session asking whether Article 50 can be revoked, and if it can be revoked, can it be done unilaterally by the UK or only bilaterally with the EU’s agreement. Exceptionally, the entire banc of the EU justices have just heard this case which indicates just how important this issue is; judgment awaited. Continue reading →
This week Law Pod UK, the podcast brought to you by the barristers at 1 Crown Office Row, surpassed 90 000 listens since our launch in May last year. Nobody could have predicted the runaway success of the podcast form a couple of years ago. Our short podcasts have proved enormously popular, not least because they provide updates on the latest legal developments with crisp discussion that absorbs the attention but lasts no longer than a short commute.
Intrigued? Subscribe to Law Pod UK via Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Audioboom or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like what you hear, please remember to rate and review us. Your support is encouraging and we hope you can help us make 100,000 listens by Christmas.
Thank you to everyone who has listened and keep an eye out for the new episodes to be released shortly!
The Supreme Court’s judgment on the liability of hospitals for the actions and misstatements of their non-medical staff is an important line in the sand for the NHS. Owain Thomas QC discusses the implications of this ruling with Rosalind English on Law Pod UK here, following his widely read post on the UK Human Rights Blog.
And as part of our repodcast arrangements with Catherine Barnard of Cambridge University, we have posted two new episodes on the Brexit negotiations, here and here. In Episode 46 of Law Pod UK Professor Barnard features an exclusive interview with Sir Ivan Rogers, the former UK Ambassador to the EU, following his speech to Trinity College Cambridge last week: “Brexit as a revolution”.
Law Pod UK is available for free download on iTunes, Audioboom, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate and leave a review to support our podcast.
With the start of the legal term, we’ve posted three great podcasts on Law Pod UK. Episode 42 looks at the influence of international law on individual rights after Brexit. In Episode 43Clare Ciborowska discusses the new offence of coercive and controlling behaviour in family proceedings. And in Episode 44 we go to the Sainsbury Laboratory in Cambridge to find out what plant scientists think of the recent CJEU ruling on genetically modified organisms.
Law Pod UK is available for free download on iTunes, Audioboom, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate and leave a review to support our podcast.
In our ongoing reposts of Professor Catherine Barnard’s series 2903 CB, Catherine discusses her reaction to the publication of the government’s White Paper, the Cabinet resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson, and the negotiating positions of the EU since the UK triggered Article 50 in March 2017.
Available for free download from iTunes, Audioboom, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate and leave a review to support our podcast.
Emma-Louise Fenelon recently interviewed Richard Booth QC about a successful injunction application to prevent a gross misconduct disciplinary hearing. You can hear the interview on Episode 39 of Law Pod UK.
The Claimant, represented by Jeremy Hyam QC, was a consultant forensic psychiatrist whose employment duties included working on the healthcare wing at Lewes prison. Following the death in custody of an inmate on the healthcare wing who had been under the Claimant’s care, the Trust initiated an investigation into the Claimant’s conduct and capability. The report of the investigation made a number of findings of failure to meet professional standards in particular with respect to the record keeping of ward reviews, but put them in the context of an under-resourced prison service. Based on the report, the Trust’s case manager purported to convene a hearing to consider disciplinary action for gross misconduct against the Claimant.
An injunction was sought to prevent such hearing going ahead on the basis that, taken at its highest, the content of the investigation report did not justify a charge of gross misconduct; that the Trust’s policy definition of gross misconduct was lower that normally set by the common law; and that the Case Manager’s management statement of case went beyond the findings in the investigation report. Granting the injunction on an interim basis, the Court concluded that there were serious issues to be tried on all the issues raised by the Claimant and the balance of convenience was clearly in favour of the grant of the injunction.
Law Pod UK continues to go from strength to strength and has surpassed 55k listens. All episodes are freely available to listen or download from a number of podcast platforms, including iTunes, Audioboom, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate and leave a review to support our podcast.
Two years from the vote to leave the European Union, Catherine Barnard, Professor of EU Law at Cambridge, considers the rocks and hard places of the Brexit negotiations. She speculates on what is meant by what exactly is meant by staying “within the remit of the CJEU”, something that has drawn a lot of fire, but has no legal meaning.
We may all be jaded with Brexit coverage. But do listen to Catherine’s podcast, it is remarkably unpartisan and clear on the facts.
In Episode 35 Matthew Hill discusses the lessons and warnings from the Bloody Sunday inquiry and the Hillsborough inquest in a talk recorded at One Crown Office Row’s 2018 seminar.
In Episode 36 , drawn from the same seminar, Emma-Louise Fenelon discusses the challenges around secrecy, anonymity and public information in major inquests and inquiries
In Episode 37 Gideon Barth considers when public inquiries are established or inquests reopened.
Law Pod UK is available for free download from iTunes, The Podcast App, Overcast, Audioboom and a number of other podcast platforms. Please rate and review us to help Law Pod UK continue to grow.
This blog is maintained for information purposes only. It is not intended to be a source of legal advice and must not be relied upon as such. Blog posts reflect the views and opinions of their individual authors, not of chambers as a whole.
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The Supreme Court’s judgment on the liability of hospitals for the actions and misstatements of their non-medical staff is an important line in the sand for the NHS. 
With the start of the legal term, we’ve posted three great podcasts on Law Pod UK. 
In our ongoing reposts of Professor Catherine Barnard’s series 2903 CB, Catherine discusses her reaction to the publication of the government’s White Paper, the Cabinet resignations of David Davis and Boris Johnson, and the negotiating positions of the EU since the UK triggered Article 50 in March 2017.
Emma-Louise Fenelon recently interviewed Richard Booth QC about a successful injunction application to prevent a gross misconduct disciplinary hearing. You can hear the interview on 
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