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NLJ this week: When governments refuse to be held to account

01 September 2023
Issue: 8038 / Categories: Legal News , Constitutional law , Public , Human rights
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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

Freeths—Ruth Clare

Freeths—Ruth Clare

National real estate team bolstered by partner hire in Manchester

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Partner appointed head of family team

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

Firm strengthens agriculture and rural affairs team with partner return

NEWS
Conveyancing lawyers have enjoyed a rapid win after campaigning against UK Finance’s decision to charge for access to the Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has launched a recruitment drive for talented early career and more senior barristers and solicitors
Regulators differed in the clarity and consistency of their post-Mazur advice and guidance, according to an interim report by the Legal Services Board (LSB)
The Solicitors Act 1974 may still underpin legal regulation, but its age is increasingly showing. Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Morrison-Hughes of the Association of Costs Lawyers argues that the Act is ‘out of step with modern consumer law’ and actively deters fairness
A Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruling has reopened debate on the availability of ‘user damages’ in competition claims. Writing in NLJ this week, Edward Nyman of Hausfeld explains how the CAT allowed Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen’s alternative damages case against Meta to proceed, rejecting arguments that such damages are barred in competition law
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