In brief

LAWLESS

Meaningless and defunct laws are to be swept from the statute book following the launch of a major clean-up operation by the House of Lords. The Statute Law (Repeals) Bill will repeal the whole of 260 Acts and part repeal 68 Acts, which cover a wide range of topics including tolls for turnpikes, financing workhouses (including an 1819 Act to build the one in Wapping mentioned by Charles Dickens in The Uncommercial Traveller), moving on undesirable street musicians and some relating to the affairs of the East India Company. The oldest statute affected is the London to Harwich Roads Act 1695. The Bill will implement the recommendations made by the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission in their joint report: Statute Law Repeals, Joint Report Law Com No 308/Scot Law Com No 210, published in January 2008.

APPEAL APPOINTMENT

The Queen has approved the appointment of Mr Justice Stanley Burnton as a Lord Justice of Appeal. He will replace Lord Justice Nicholas Pumfrey who died last year. Stanley Burnton J was called to the Bar by the MiddleTemple in 1965 and was made a bencher in 1991.

SIARAD CYMRAEG

Plans to introduce bilingual juries into Welsh courts are being considered by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). Welsh secretary Paul Murphy is lobbying senior politicians in London and Cardiff to push the case for their introduction. Justice secretary Jack Straw is reportedly “open minded” about the plans and first minister Rhodri Morgan is also said to be in favour. In addition, the Lord Chancellor’s Standing Committee, which represents most of Wales’s judges and legal profession, claims the Welsh Language Act was “severely undermined” by English speaking courts. The MOJ says a decision will be made as soon as possible, but admits that the shortage of Welsh speakers in some parts of the country could be a stumbling block.