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24 March 2023 / David Walbank KC
Issue: 8018 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Criminal , Human rights
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Crime brief: 24 March 2023

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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

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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42BR Barristers—4 Brick Court

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Winckworth Sherwood—Rubianka Winspear

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Real estate and construction energy offering boosted by partner hire

Gateley Legal—Daniel Walsh

Gateley Legal—Daniel Walsh

Firm bolsters real estate team with partner hire in Birmingham

NEWS
A wave of housing and procedural reforms is set to test the limits of tribunal capacity. In his latest Civil Way column for NLJ this week, Stephen Gold charts sweeping change as the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 begins biting
Plans to reduce jury trials risk missing the real problem in the criminal justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, David Wolchover of Ridgeway Chambers argues the crown court backlog is fuelled not by juries but weak cases slipping through a flawed ‘50%’ prosecution test
Emerging technologies may soon transform how courts determine truth in deeply personal disputes. In this week's NLJ, Madhavi Kabra of 1 Hare Court and Harry Lambert of Outer Temple Chambers explore how neurotechnology could reshape family law
A controversial protest case has reignited debate over the limits of free expression. In NLJ this week, Nicholas Dobson examines a Quran-burning incident testing public order law
The courts have drawn a firm line under attempts to extend arbitration appeals. Writing in NLJ this week, Masood Ahmed of the University of Leicester highlights that if the High Court refuses permission under s 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996, that is the end
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