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28 March 2014 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7600 / Categories: Opinion
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Spring initiatives

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Roger Smith celebrates some seasonal highlights

As the weather warms and the sun comes out, three initiatives to celebrate: a new career; an institutional drive; and international support to be given.

A career reborn

Former DPP Sir Keir Starmer QC shows every sign of smoothly moving to the next stage of his life. He is widely tipped to replace the long-serving Frank Dobson as MP for Holborn and St Pancras. And he is making his own luck as to issues. First, he has developed a nice line in defending the human rights of victims, writing about this in The Guardian and assiduously speaking on the subject at constituency-based venues like Camden’s Working Men’s College. Second, the government’s proposals for HS2 are presenting him with a wonderfully convenient canvass on which to argue that there has been inadequate consultation, as required by the Human Rights Act 1998, at the heart of his putative constituency around Euston.

Sir Keir is a Dartmouth Park resident, physically near to Ed Miliband himself. It would be surprising if there was not

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NEWS
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Fraud claims are surging, with England and Wales increasingly the forum of choice for global disputes. Writing in NLJ this week, Jon Felce of Cooke, Young & Keidan reports claims have risen sharply, with fraud now a major share of litigation and costing billions worldwide
Litigators digesting Mazur are being urged to tighten oversight and compliance. In his latest 'Insider' column for NLJ this week, Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School provides a cut out and keep guide to the ruling’s core test: whether an unauthorised individual is ‘in truth acting on behalf of the authorised individual’
Conflicting county court rulings have left landlords uncertain over whether they can force entry after tenants refuse access. In this week's NLJ, Edward Blakeney and Ashpen Rajah of Falcon Chambers outline a split: some judges permit it under CPR 70.2A, others insist only Parliament can authorise such powers
A wave of scandals has reignited debate over misconduct in public office, criticised as unclear and inconsistently applied. Writing in NLJ this week, Alice Lepeuple of WilmerHale says the offence’s ‘vagueness, overbreadth & inconsistent deployment’ have undermined confidence
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