Human rights

On the very day that the spanking new Supreme Court opened for business, legal tradition reasserted itself. Over the flagstones that had witnessed the trial of Charles I in Westminster Hall walked the elite of the legal world as they made their way to lunch after the traditional service for the opening of the legal year.

Susan Nash relates tales of intrigue & subterfuge across the EU

Ed Mitchell provides an update on flawed decision making & the protection of vulnerable adults

R (on the application of Age UK) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills, [2009] EWHC 2336 (Admin)

It is one thing for the courts to protect citizens from the arbitrary use of prosecutorial discretion resulting in abuse of process; quite another to require prosecutors to spell out the public interest criteria they will apply in relation to particular crimes, not least to particular instances of particular crimes. Circumstances are infinitely variable, especially when a case is hypothetical. Ms Purdy may never be assisted in suicide, by her husband or anyone else. For all we know, she may—like Mrs Pretty—end up dying a natural death in an English hospice. In short, Purdy seems unprecedented, unsound and unconstitutional.

“Bombed—lost everything”. That was how one London Citizens Advice bureau memorably recorded the nature of the legal problems for the newly dispossessed “streams” of clients approaching the nascent service. War was declared on 3 September 1939 and the first bureau opened its doors the next day.

Jacqueline Renton reports on the human rights’ approach to non-consensual marriage

What happens when Strasbourg gets it wrong?

An Afghani wife from Pakistan has won the right to join her refugee husband in the UK because refusal by the Appeal Immigration Tribunal violated her Art 8 rights.

Seamus Burns commends the move towards greater transparency in assisted suicide cases