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Law on the silver screen

15 November 2018 / John Cooper KC
Issue: 7817 / Categories: Features
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John Cooper QC on legal films & the magical ingredients which mean they will always be top of the bill

The British Film Institute’s London Film Festival completed its presentation of films from 75 countries last month, movies which will be hitting our cinemas over the next year and representing many of the important issues facing us in the times ahead. In this respect, it has been a fascinating exercise to consider the films within the Festival which deal with legal themes to try to work out what it is that inspires this year’s crop of movie makers when it comes to the law.

Jeopardy required

Legal themes have always been highly bankable at the box office, and film makers realised from the very early days of celluloid storytelling that movie goers cannot get enough of the genre. Without doubt, that is because all the elements which make up a good story are inherent within the legal process. As new writers, we are always taught that central to any compelling script or story is

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

Blake Morgan managing partner appointed chair of CBI South-East Council

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Commercial dispute resolution team welcomes partner in Cambridge

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

NEWS
The proposed £11bn redress scheme following the Supreme Court’s motor finance rulings is analysed in this week’s NLJ by Fred Philpott of Gough Square Chambers
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
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