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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.
Yesterday (Tuesday 9th of April) the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg handed down three judgments from the Grand Chamber. Two of the applications were rejected on admissibility grounds. The third, a representative action by an NGO against the Swiss government, succeeded. It has caused something of a stir, to say the least.
The Strasbourg Court has broken new ground in finding that Switzerland has breached Article 8 of the ECHR, a provision which was drafted to protect the right to private and family life. In the case of Verein Klimaseniorinnen Schweiz and others v Switzerland, 16 of the 17 member panel concluded that Article 8 encompasses a right to effective protection by the state authorities from the serious adverse effects of climate change on lives, health, well-being and quality of life.
The case of Duarte Agostinho and five others v Portugal and 32 other states was one of the applications considered by the Grand Chamber. Emma Louise Fenelon advised Save the Children in its third party intervention in this case.
In this first episode, Lucy and Kiran ask ‘what’s the problem?’ and cover a number of issues including gendered assumptions and stereotypes, pressure at the Bar, equal pay, and the fair allocation of work.
In Episode 192 of Law Pod UK Rachel Marcus and Marcus Coates-Walker of 1 Crown Office Row join Lucy McCann to explore the principle of the scope of duty in the context of clinical negligence claims: first by analysing the decision in Khan v Meadows and then discussing how the courts have grappled with scope of duty issues since.
In Episode 191 Jon Metzer and Lucy McCann join Rosalind English to review the judgements and decisions of the past year that we at Law Pod UK consider to have the most important implications for the law. The cases we discuss are the following:
Episode 190: join environmental law expert David Hart KC of 1 Crown Office Row and Roy Harrison, professor of public health and expert in airborne emissions of Birmingham University, for a fascinating and disturbing discussion of two cases concerning the contamination of the environment in countries where enforcement standards are not as strong as they are in the West. You will hear both the scientific details of how these contaminants behave when they get into the environment, and the practicalities of getting class actions going in the courts to bring the polluters to book.
We have the Royal Society of Chemists to thank for this interesting discussion, in particularly the Society’s Toxicology Group which held a seminar in November to bring scientists and lawyers together to explore current perspectives on environmental toxic tort claims and review recent cases.
In Episode 189 presenters Rosalind English and Lucy McCann reprise some of the leading episodes of Law Pod UK this year, ranging from the potential impact of AI on the legal professions, to the problem of Deprivation of Liberty Orders for children in the UK, given the severe lack of regulated accommodation available for the family courts to identify.
For a reminder and a refresher of the wide spectrum of subjects we cover on this series, dive in, learn and enjoy.
Listen to Family law expert Richard Ager talk to Melissa Patidar about her intermediary service company, Comunicourt, which provides communication support between lawyers and witnesses in remote and face to face hearings in family court proceedings. They discuss parties with vulnerabilities, qualifications and role of an intermediary, and how lawyers should aim to work with them.
Traditionally, the courts have been extremely reluctant to impose a positive duty of care on the police to protect or warn members of the public who may be potential victims of crime. This sort of liability, it is thought, would lead to defensive policing.
In a leading authority on this issue, Hill v Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police (the Peter Sutcliffe case 1989), the House of Lords said that the imposition of a duty of care to individual members of the public would be detrimental.
“A great deal of police time, trouble and expense might be expected to have to be put into the preparation of the defence to the action and the attendance of witnesses at the trial. The result would be a significant diversion of police manpower and attention from their most important function, that of the suppression of crime”.
In Episode 187 of Law Pod UK, Rosalind English discusses with barrister Conor Monighan of 5 Essex Court the implications of this decision for the police and other public authorities in the UK. I would urge anyone interested in this subject not only to listen to the podcast but also to read Conor’s deep dive into the case in his recent post on UKHRB: A Common Law Duty of Care to Issue an Osman Warning? In that post you will find references to previous authorities on police liability in this context, with full citations.
And … please keep the feedback rolling! It will only take you a couple of minutes to fill in this very short anonymous survey. Thank you in advance. www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LawPodUK
In the latest episode of Law Pod UK, Robert Kellar KC discusses the developing law on NFTs with Victoria Walters, library learning advisor at the Bristol campus of the University of Law. We are grateful to Victoria and the University for the permission to repost this interview.
As Robert explains, the “token” is a crypto token that exists on a decentralised network, or a blockchain. The tokens are minted using blockchain technology, and can be transferred and traded. As for “non-fungible” – something that is fungible is interchangeable with other things, like money. Something is non-fungible is unique, like a piece of art.
Hear more about this interesting marketplace involving exchanges of considerable value by listening to Episode 186 of Law Pod UK.
Plus: we want your feedback! Please take a couple of minutes to fill in this very short anonymous survey. Thank you in advance. www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LawPodUK
On May the 10th the government announced that a fundamental change to the Retained EU Law Bill. As you will hear from Episode 184, I discuss with Sam Willis of the Public Law Project the so called sunsetting clauses in the bill which would have repealed all EU legislation at the end of the year, with the exception of any EU law that ministers decided to keep. Since this episode was recorded, business Secretary Kimi Badenoch has said that the the government is to publish a list of the retained laws that will be scrapped by the end of 2023. Instead of thousands of unspecified EU laws expiring by the end of the year, a mere 600 out of the 5000 odd pieces of legislation from the EU era will be repealed. So please bear this in mind when listening to our discussion.
Here are the full citations for the cases referred to in the episode:
Walker v Innospec Ltd [2017] UKSC 47, [2017] 4 All ER 1004 Horton v Sadler [2006] UKHL 27, [2007] 1 AC 307, [29] (Lord Bingham), cited as continuing to be applicable in Peninsula Securities Ltd v Dunnes Stores Ltd (Bangor) Ltd [2020] UKSC 36, [2020] 3 WLR 521, [49] (Lord Wilson JSC) (both applying Practice Statement (Judicial Precedent) [1966] 1 WLR 1234) Lock v British Gas Trading Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 983, [2017] 4 All ER 291
Tunein Inc v Warner Music UK Ltd & Anor [2021] EWCA Civ 441 (26 March 2021)
And here are the following pensions cases that are relevant to this issue:
Case C-17/17 Hampshire v Board of the Pension Protection Fund [2019] ICR 327 Case C-168/18 Pensions-Sicherungs-Verein VVaG v Günther Bauer [2020] 2 CMLR 26 And see Hansard for the fourth sitting of the Public Bill Committee on the 22 November 2022, at pages 168-169, for the Minister’s following comments:
“the Department for Work and Pensions does not intend to implement the Bauer judgment through the benefits system, as it is a European Court judgment that does not fully align to the UK private pension protection scheme”
In Episode 183 Lucy McCann speaks to Cara Guthrie and Matthew Flinn of 1 Crown Office Row about multi-defendant litigation in the field of clinical negligence. The discussion covers, who to sue, the costs implications of having multiple defendants, contribution proceedings, apportioning liability between defendants, and interim payment applications.
In Episode 181 Jim Duffy discuss small boats and some big, constitutional changes on the horizon, with Prof Jim Murdoch, Shameem Ahmad and Angus McCullough KC
After being placed briefly on ice, the Bill of Rights Bill is now described by Justice Secretary Dominic Raab as ‘ready to go’. The Bill would repeal and replace the Human Rights Act 1998 with what Angus McCullough KC describes as a “hotch-potch of measures” designed to secure a “conscious uncoupling” with the Strasbourg Court.
Joining Angus and me on the latest episode of Law Pod UK are Shameem Ahmed – the new CEO of the Public Law Project – and Jim Murdoch, Professor of Public Law at the University of Glasgow and long-time Council of Europe expert on human rights law and practice.
We examine the key features of the Bill, place it in a wider European and international legal context, and discuss the direction of travel for human rights law in the UK in the wake of the Illegal Migration Bill.
And finally!
If you have feedback on Law Pod UK, please take a couple of minutes to fill in this very short, anonymous survey. Thank you in advance!
In Episode 182 Emma-Louise Fenelon speaks to Matthew Hill of 1, Crown Office Row about three recent decisions concerning unlawful killing. This episode refers to the following cases:
R (Maughan) v Her Majesty’s Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire[2020] UKSC 46
In Episode 178 Emma-Louise Fenelon speaks to Shahram Sharghy and Jo Moore about how to become a barrister. The episode considers the kind of research that is essential to do in advance, navigating the pupillage gateway, preparing for interviews, and dealing with rejection.
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