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03 December 2021
Issue: 7959 / Categories: Legal News , Judicial review
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NLJ this week: Judicial review power-grab may miss the target

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Judicial review has found itself in the government’s crosshairs on several occasions in the past decade, Matthew Smith, partner, DBD Pitmans, writes in this week’s NLJ. Focusing on the latest attempts to reform judicial review, he points out a troubling presumption in the proposed bill, which he thinks would be better removed

Smith also highlights how a proposal on the retrospective effect of a quashing order appears to give the judiciary rather than Parliament the power to change the position retrospectively.

He writes: ‘If, as seems likely, one of the government’s motivations for proposing reform of judicial review is to clip the judges’ wings, it is arguable that it has missed the target. Further, in doing so, ministers appear (perhaps inadvertently) to have undermined Parliament, thus risking further tensions in a constitutional framework which is already under considerable stress.’ 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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