Law Society’s Gazette, May 1962

Judicial selection in America

In many ways chance has turned the tide of events in President Kennedy’s favour and provided his administration with great opportunities. It happens, for example, that he will have the opportunity of appointing several times as many federal judges as any of his predecessors did. This opportunity has come about in a way that is too complex to describe here but is largely the fruit of a campaign waged throughout at least two previous administrations to break the tradition of political patronage that has been so influential a factor in judicial appointments in the United States in the past.

Damages in claims for personal injuries: the need for reform of judicial practice

The subject of damages in personal injury actions has had an importance since the last war which it never previously enjoyed. Many of the reasons are obvious: the abolition of the defence of common employment, the enactment that contributor negligence is no longer a complete bar to an action, the judicial expansion of the action for breach of statutory duty, the facility given to the injured workman by the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act 1948, of claiming both industrial injuries benefit and common-law damages, and, of course, legal aid.

This increased importance has been reflected by the publication of special books on damages for practitioners.

Remuneration of articled clerks and payment of premiums

The council are sometimes asked what is the ‘normal’ remuneration for an articled clerk in private practice. In their view payment to an articled clerk is in principle to be regarded more as a contribution towards expenses while qualifying than as a reward for services, though this latter aspect may well be taken into account in appropriate cases.

Book review: Persecution 1961, by Peter Benenson, Penguin 2s 6d

Mr Peter Benenson, a barrister, is the founder of Justice, an organisation of lawyers to uphold the Rule of Law, which forms the British section of the International Commission of Jurists, and he was largely responsible for the launching in 1961 of the Appeal for Amnesty movement.

The book tells the story of nine people each of whom ‘suffered for his ideals’ which have been chosen, according to the introduction, to ‘show what can happen to people who put forward views which are unacceptable to their government or unpopular with their neighbours’. The reference to neighbours is almost superfluous, since the machinery of persecution seems generally to have been operated at levels of government where the views of neighbours would have been of no importance.