All articles by Joshua Rozenberg – Page 15
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News
Twitter popular among judges - but they need to master the medium
The judges have started tweeting. Even though reporters are still waiting for final guidance from the judiciary on the use of ‘live, text-based communication from court’, senior judges have jumped the gun and embraced Twitter with enthusiasm. Not that you’ll see judges telling us what ...
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Leveson a strong choice to lead phone-hacking inquiry
What’s so striking about the judicial inquiry into phone hacking is how high-powered it all is. I had initially thought that the lord chief justice would recommend a retired judge for appointment as its chairman. But Lord Judge recognised that the task was simply too important for someone nearing the ...
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Phone-hacking scandal has obscured other important stories
Last week was not a very good time to be a reporter - although it helped if you had never been employed by one of Rupert Murdoch’s diminishing stable of newspapers. It looks as if journalists, like solicitors, are about to lose the privilege of ...
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Human rights committee is making unrealistic demands on extradition
Is it easier for the United States to have a suspect extradited from the United Kingdom than it is for the UK to get someone handed over by the US? Ever since the US-UK extradition treaty was signed in 2003, there have been complaints that ...
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It makes sense to restrict arrests for crimes of universal jurisdiction
Government reforms designed to restrict arrests for crimes of universal jurisdiction survived new challenges in the House of Lords last week. If the proposals emerge unscathed after a further debate this month, there will be less risk that politicians visiting Britain from countries such as the US, China and Israel ...
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Alex Salmond is gunning for the Supreme Court
The last reported prosecution for ‘murmuring’ – or slandering – judges under Scottish law seems to have been in 1870 and the offence must now be obsolete. So there seems little chance of seeing the first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, in the dock for ...
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Lord chief justice allowed himself to be labelled 'enemy of free speech'
Taking on the media is never a good idea if you happen to be a member of the judiciary. While judges are required to be fair, logical and impartial, reporters and commentators are often inaccurate, opinionated and driven more by commercial needs than by lofty ...
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Lady Justice Hallett could become the first woman lord chief justice
Lady Justice Hallett’s handling of the London bombing inquests has done her chances of becoming the next lord chief justice no harm at all. There isn’t a vacancy, of course, and Lord Judge, who celebrates his 70th birthday next week, is on excellent form. ...
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Privacy law, not injunctions, should be on press's agenda
The press worked itself up into a predictable lather of self-righteousness last week as editors saw their circulation figures threatened by privacy laws. Firmly in their sights were what they called ‘super-injunctions’ - although an injunction whose existence may be reported is no more a ...
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Likely appointment of Jonathan Sumption to Supreme Court is controversial
What does it take to become a justice of the UK Supreme Court? According to its president, Lord Phillips, those who applied for the most recent vacancies had to demonstrate independence of mind, integrity, intellectual ability, clarity of thought, an ability to work under pressure, ...
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Having faith in judicial institutions
Why do we have such faith in judicial institutions that sometimes get things wrong? The question was posed last week by Stephen Breyer, a justice of the US Supreme Court, speaking in London at an event arranged by the Bingham Centre for the Rule ...
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Web redefines relationship between journalism and the law
Write an article for publication these days and the chances are that it will attract ill-informed comments. No longer content with sending in a letter to the editor and waiting to see if it is printed, readers now demand an instant right of reply on the publisher’s website. ...
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Supreme Court backing of Twitter reflects badly on mainstream media
Why did the Supreme Court announce last week that it was offering what its president, Lord Phillips, describes as ‘a green light to tweeting and other forms of [text-based] communication’? There have never been any restrictions on sending texts from the Supreme Court or, until recently, ...
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There should be no rigid threshold determining a prisoner’s right to vote
Spare a thought for Mark Harper, junior minister at the Cabinet Office who is responsible for political and constitutional reform. A chartered accountant by training, he finds himself responsible for reducing the number of his fellow MPs; for introducing fixed-term parliaments; and for answering the unanswerable West Lothian question. But ...
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Has Nick Clegg been 'mugged by reality' on control orders?
Will the government abolish control orders? Or are unconvicted terrorist suspects still going to have their movements and contacts restricted under these much-criticised ‘gag and tag’ orders? ‘Control orders cannot continue in their current form,’ insisted the deputy prime minister last week. ‘They must be replaced.’ ...
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Disgraced MPs broke new legal ground last week
The hour before lunch last Friday was a bad one for two former Labour MPs. First, the High Court ruled that an election court had acted lawfully when it found Phil Woolas guilty of an ‘illegal practice’. There was just time to hear Woolas announce that he would not be ...
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Lord chief justice fears new threats to jury trial
There must have been sighs of relief at the Ministry of Justice last week when officials realised that they would not be required to abolish trial by jury. The threat this time was not from the department’s grandly titled Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses. Louise Casey’s absurd demand this month ...
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Concern over use of 'Henry Vlll' powers to overturn acts of parliament
The coalition’s approach to legislation is neither conservative nor liberal. That much is clear from the new Quangos (Bonfire) Bill, or the Public Bodies Bill as it is more properly called in parliament. It is through this legislation that the government intends to reform nearly 500 ...
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New book offers intriguing analysis of role of feminist judges
Is it possible to be both a judge and a feminist? That’s the intriguing question posed by Baroness Hale in her foreword to a fascinating new book, Feminist Judgments from Theory to Practice (Hart Publishing, £22.95). Hale is, of course, the UK’s most senior woman judge. ...
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UK still has a judiciary to be proud of
The formal reprimand issued to His Honour George Bathurst-Norman last week is the most serious of the disciplinary powers available to the lord chief justice in cases of judicial misconduct, short of suspension or removal from office. Those latter powers would not have been appropriate for Bathurst-Norman because he had ...