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01 September 2023
Issue: 8038 / Categories: Legal News , Constitutional law , Public , Human rights
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NLJ this week: When governments refuse to be held to account

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Who, ultimately, has power in the UK? And how do we, the people, safeguard our rights? In this week’s NLJ, Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC, NLJ columnist and senior consultant, Bindmans, explains why we should all be concerned with the need for constitutional restraints.

Bindman highlights that ‘governments are bound by the law, as is everyone else’. He notes that ‘limiting parliamentary sovereignty’ may not have seemed a major issue in the past, but times have changed.

‘An authoritarian UK government has delivered a series of legislative measures, threatened or already introduced, which seek to remove longstanding freedoms,’ he writes. 

Read more on the need for constitutional restraints here.

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
The winners of the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2026 have now been announced, marking another outstanding celebration of excellence, innovation, and impact across the legal profession
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’
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