Last 3 months headlines – Page 1271
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South Korea opens billion-pound legal market
A new multi-billion pound legal market has opened for firms following the Republic of Korea’s decision to liberalise the rules around who can practise law in the country. Korean Bar Association vice-president Lee Byung-Joo (pictured) told the Gazette this week that Korea’s situation between Tokyo and ...
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IP violations revealed by EU
EU customs officers detained almost 115 million products suspected of violating intellectual property rights in 2011 compared with 103 million in 2010, the latest European Commission annual report on customs efforts to enforce IPR has revealed. The intercepted goods were valued at £1.04bn compared with £880m ...
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Policing professionals - international regulators
Last week, the Solicitors Regulation Authority held the first conference of its kind for international regulators.
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Politicians who are willing to talk about justice are vanishingly rare
The theme of ‘fairness’ is running like a thread through political speeches this autumn. Variants on ‘fair’ and ‘unfair’ featured large in deputy prime minister Nick Clegg’s speech to his party’s conference. Ever the competitive type, shadow chancellor Ed Balls, addressing Labour this week, used the words twice as often ...
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Defining violence needs government commitment
by Baroness Scotland QC, former attorney general for England and Wales Domestic violence does not have a statutory definition in England and Wales. Since 2004, government departments, the Crown Prosecution Service and the police have instead adopted a working definition of domestic violence.
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Rules of engagement
Normally, solicitors get the luxury of attending the opening of the legal year at Westminster Abbey, digesting all that flows from that and then heading off a few weeks later to the International Bar Association (IBA). Not this year. Having attended the opening of the legal year, lots of solicitors ...
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Public authorities and datasets
The past few months have seen a number of developments in Freedom of Information law. In May, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced changes that will be made to the information public authorities will need to release proactively as part of their Publication Scheme (under ...
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IBA 2012: former president of American bar dismisses 'risky' ABS model
The immediate past-president of the American Bar Association has strongly denounced alternative business structures, arguing that non-lawyer investment in law firms compromises the client's best interests and undermines professional independence. William T (Bill) Robinson III gave the strongest indication yet that the US will ...
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Irish rise
Is this year’s International Bar Association conference the biggest global gathering of lawyers ever, anywhere? The organisers certainly seem to think so, and, though vast, the premises of the Royal Dublin Society struggled to cope with a cast of thousands at Sunday’s opening ceremony. About 150 latecomers were locked out ...
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Middle Eastern promise
Fancy somewhere different for a holiday this year? With sunshine, mountains and a fascinating local culture and history? Obiter suggests Iraqi Kurdistan. The semi-autonomous province is accessible, friendly and the prospect of oil wealth has encouraged a spate of luxury hotel building. Though you’ll want to avoid the seven-star end ...
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Easy Ryder
Nice to see the national press playing to stereotype at the lord chief justice’s annual press conference at the Royal Courts of Justice last week. The Daily Mail asked if capital punishment should return, the Evening Standard wanted to know if the Abu Hamza case had ...
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Focus on value proposition
Law firm marketing is often seen as the department which does the brochures, the website and runs events. It is relatively rare that the marketing team is consulted in areas such as pricing, but all a firm’s effort and expenditure on promotion may amount to nothing if the solicitor receiving ...
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Novel approach
The irresistible combination of culture, charity and immigration law was enough to send Obiter hotfooting it across London last week to hear novelist Marina Lewycka (pictured) reading excerpts from her latest book, Various Pets Alive and Dead. Author of the improbably named bestseller A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, ...
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Immigration
Liberty - Detention - Sentence of imprisonment for public protection Secretary of State for the Home Department v FV (Italy): CA (Civ Div) (Lord Justices Pill, Aikens, Lady Justice Rafferty): 14 September 2012 ...
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Labour conference: Khan he deliver the goods?
The centrepiece of Labour’s conference, as with any party conference, was the leader’s speech. In Manchester Ed Miliband’s hour-long noteless oration went down well with the press on performance, but it was noticeably lacking on the minor detail of policy. I seemed to spend my ...
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Criminal reaccreditation scheme on hold
The Law Society has postponed plans to reaccredit criminal solicitors every five years, following consultation with the profession. The Society consulted in April on a proposal that members of the Criminal Litigation Accreditation Scheme (CLAS) should undergo a regulatory check every five years, confirming that they ...
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Human rights
Liberty - Detention - Sentence of imprisonment for public protection James and others v United Kingdom (app nos 25119/09, 57715/09 and 57877/09): European Court of Human Rights (Judges Lech Garlicki (president), David Thór Björgvinsson, Nicolas Bratza, George Nicolaou, Zdravka ...
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IBA 2012: 'banker to the poor' calls for company law rethink
Nobel Peace laureate and anti-poverty campaigner Professor Muhammad Yunus today called for a fundamental rethink of company law in order to help the world's poor. The Bangladeshi banker and former economics professor wants to see a relaxation of the obligation on public company directors to ...
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, 11 October 1972 Excerpts from the inaugural address by President of the Law Society Sir Desmond Heap LLM People and Lawyers It is a matter of astonishment for lawyers that they seem to be regarded ...