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Crime brief: 24 March 2023

24 March 2023 / David Walbank KC
Issue: 8018 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Criminal , Human rights
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David Walbank KC examines the relevance of gender identity within the context of extradition requests
  • Law and politics.
  • Transgender women in the prison estate.
  • Society’s changing mores.

The borderlands between law and politics are endlessly fought over. The front lines are constantly shifting. Similar dilemmas can have very different outcomes, depending on whether battle is joined in a court of law, or in the rather more fickle court of public opinion.

This phenomenon is strikingly illustrated by the controversy which, in the view of many, elevated some embarrassing polling data into a full-scale resignation issue for the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon. If nothing else, it seems to prove that in politics, as in life, timing is everything. Having found herself on arguably the wrong side of the debate about the incarceration of transgender women in women’s prisons, the hitherto untouchable leader of the Scottish National Party would doubtless look with a quizzical eye on the recent decision of the Administrative Court in Prusianu v

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
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