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Across the pond

18 September 2015 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7668 / Categories: Opinion
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Roger Smith surveys legal news on the other side of the Atlantic

A summer stay in Saratoga Springs, once famous for its spas and now for its racecourse, has reawakened an interest in US legal developments. This was largely because I was staying on a lake with a fellow lawyer interested in discussing such matters. He also encouraged me to renew my digital subscription to The New York Times, whose coverage of legal—as other—issues puts even the best of the British press in the shade. But, had I been more aware of history at the time, it might also have been—as a judge later pointed out to me—because the city was the birthplace of the American Bar Association (ABA) in 1878. This had from the beginning high aspirations for its members. They were to be “attorneys of unquestionable professional attainments, men who made waves in their community, state and nation”. Certainly, there are enough issues to detain men, and now women, of such eminence—many of them very similar to those over here.

Terrorism & the rule

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Carey Olsen—Kim Paiva

Group partner joins Guernsey banking and finance practice

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

Morgan Lewis—Kat Gibson

London labour and employment team announces partner hire

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Foot Anstey McKees—Chris Milligan & Michael Kelly

Double partner appointment marks Belfast expansion

NEWS
Is a suspect’s state of mind a ‘fact’ capable of triggering adverse inferences? Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Smith of Corker Binning examines how R v Leslie reshapes the debate
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has not done enough to protect the future sustainability of the legal aid market, MPs have warned
Writing in NLJ this week, NLJ columnist Dominic Regan surveys a landscape marked by leapfrog appeals, costs skirmishes and notable retirements. With an appeal in Mazur due to be heard next month, Regan notes that uncertainties remain over who will intervene, and hopes for the involvement of the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls in deciding the all-important outcome
After the Southport murders and the misinformation that followed, contempt of court law has come under intense scrutiny. In this week's NLJ, Lawrence McNamara and Lauren Schaefer of the Law Commission unpack proposals aimed at restoring clarity without sacrificing fair trial rights
The latest Home Office figures confirm that stop and search remains both controversial and diminished. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort University analyses data showing historically low use of s 1 PACE powers, with drugs searches dominating what remains
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