Lords rule on assisted suicide: R (on the application of Purdy) v Director of Public Prosecutions

On the day when the Law Lords bade farewell to the House of Lords and sit as Justices of the Supreme Court of the United kingdom at the new Supreme Court in October, they gave judgment on one of the emotive issues of our times in R (on the application of Purdy) v Director of [...]

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An issue of justice

While our own legal history has a grim and primitive past; with trial by ordeal and combat being replaced by rough justice and the penalties of death by hanging, drawing, quatering et al – and the Americans and other supposedly civilised jurisdictions around the world continue to exact the penalty of death – we do [...]

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30 July 09: Editor’s pick of the day

Farewell to the law lords Times / David Pannick QC: Today the law lords sit to give judgment for the last time in the House of Lords and, as Lord Hope of Craighead said there last week, the upper chamber will be “losing part of itself”. From October the law lords will become Justices of [...]

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29 July 09: Editor Pick of the Day

Head of Legal blog: Lord Lester: my life as a goat “Lord Lester, writing in the Guardian today , explains why he resigned as the government’s independent adviser on constitutional change. I have some sympathy for Lord Lester – he had the experience (that many civil servants have had) of finding out his role and [...]

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A good time to be a lawyer?

There is a certain irony  that the  Bar Standard Board could be forced to abandon plans to introduce a compulsory aptitude test designed to reduce the number of people taking the Bar Vocational Course  after The Office of Fair Trading ‘dubbed it’ anti-competitive earlier this week. (The Lawyer) Far be it from me, a blogger [...]

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