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Food for thought

25 October 2018 / Athelstane Aamodt
Issue: 7814 / Categories: Features
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Following the latest case with cake at the core, Athelstane Aamodt takes a culinary journey through a few more legal pickles

The judgment in the ‘gay cake’ case of Lee v Ashers Baking Company Ltd [2018] UKSC 49, [2018] All ER (D) 43 (Oct) has provoked a great deal of discussion. The conclusion that the Supreme Court reached—that there was a difference between the message on the cake and the protected characteristic of the person requesting that message—has been hailed by many as a victory for the freedom of ideas and expression, and by others as a defeat for equal rights.

Food, it seems, is often at the heart of important cases; while the judgment in Lee was being prepared, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down judgment in another ‘gay cake’ case, Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd v Colorado Civil Rights Commission , 138 S Ct 1719. The facts of the US case are different, but the conclusion, to quote Lady Hale, ‘… that there is a clear distinction between refusing to produce a cake conveying

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NEWS
The government’s plan to introduce a Single Professional Services Supervisor could erode vital legal-sector expertise, warns Mark Evans, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, in NLJ this week
Writing in NLJ this week, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers argues that the ‘failure to prevent’ model of corporate criminal responsibility—covering bribery, tax evasion, and fraud—should be embraced, not resisted
Professor Graham Zellick KC argues in NLJ this week that, despite Buckingham Palace’s statement stripping Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his styles, titles and honours, he remains legally a duke
Writing in NLJ this week, Sophie Ashcroft and Miranda Joseph of Stevens & Bolton dissect the Privy Council’s landmark ruling in Jardine Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd (No 2), which abolishes the long-standing 'shareholder rule'
In NLJ this week, Sailesh Mehta and Theo Burges of Red Lion Chambers examine the government’s first-ever 'Afghan leak' super-injunction—used to block reporting of data exposing Afghans who aided UK forces and over 100 British officials. Unlike celebrity privacy cases, this injunction centred on national security. Its use, the authors argue, signals the rise of a vast new body of national security law spanning civil, criminal, and media domains
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