header-logo header-logo

Updated lawmakers' guide now available

24 July 2024
Categories: Legal News , Public , Constitutional law
printer mail-detail
Civil rights group JUSTICE has launched the latest edition of its Law for Lawmakers guide, due to land on MPs' desks this week

Law for Lawmakers provides up-to-date, easy-to-follow and highly relevant assistance to help MPs navigate lawmaking and protect the rule of law, following recent controversies such as the Rwanda policy and proroguing Parliament during the Brexit years.

It explains key legal and constitutional principles in a readable format, with an abundance of references to recent events. The guide covers UK primary and secondary legislation, the process for tabling amendments, the lawmaking journey, EU law, judicial review, international law, constitutional conventions and much more.

The guide was first published in 2015, and has been updated with the support of law firm A&O Shearman.

Andrew Denny, head of UK public law at A&O Shearman, said: ‘51% of MPs are sitting in Parliament for the first time so this guide couldn’t be more relevant.’

JUSTICE will offer training opportunities and clinics on the guide for MPs and their staff over the coming months.

Fiona Rutherford, chief executive of JUSTICE, said: ‘Where the rule of law is badly eroded, the results—rushed, poorly scrutinised new laws, and threats to judicial independence, for example—hurt us all.’

The guide has also been endorsed by the current attorney general, Lord Richard Hermer KC, and former Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk KC. 

Lord Richard said the guide ‘is an incredibly useful resource in introducing some of the key legal and constitutional principles which lawmakers will encounter’.

Alex Chalk said: ‘The rule of law isn’t an airy, quaint, historic notion—it’s the essential underpinning of a modern, safe, prosperous and fair society.

‘It’s what ensures the guilty are convicted and the innocent walk free. It’s what ensures injustices are put right even when the wrongdoer is powerful. And it’s what promotes Britain's international reputation and attracts investment.

‘But the world of the law, of bewigged judges and judicial review, can feel like a secret garden to MPs—to new ones in particular. This excellent guide gives them the key.’

Download the guide here.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

mfg Solicitors—Brian Hession

mfg Solicitors—Brian Hession

Birmingham commercial property team bolstered by partner hire

STEP—Sara Morgan

STEP—Sara Morgan

Fieldfisher director re-elected as deputy chair of England Wales committee

Osborne Clarke—Andrew Eaton

Osborne Clarke—Andrew Eaton

Restructuring and insolvency expert joins as partner

NEWS
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
back-to-top-scroll