Enforcement of EU Law: is there anything new under the sun? (PART 1) – Dr Melanie Smith and Dr Sara Drake

Posted on 5 September 2014 by Alison Tobin

There is little positive commentary in the media regarding the enforcement of EU obligations (or the EU more generally of course) despite the fact that member states’ infringements tend to undermine citizens’ rights: from air passenger rights to holiday pay, to clean beaches and cleaner air, EU enforcement has generally been a force for rights’
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Age, Rationing and the National Health Service: a legal and ethical minefield? – Professor Keith Syrett

Posted on 5 August 2014 by Alison Tobin

A recent report in the Daily Telegraph sought to expose ‘illegal’ age discrimination in the National Health Service (NHS). It cited a study jointly carried out by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) and Age UK, which analysed rates of surgery across various age groups and found, first, that there were significant geographic variations in
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Diary of a UK Innocence Project 10: To e, or not to e: Electronic v Paper Case Management – Julie Price

Posted on 2 May 2014 by Alison Tobin

This blog first appeared on thejusticegap.com Paperwork: don’t you just love it? Actually, yes we do at our innocence project. If we’re going to make any sort of progress in our case reviews, having access to a complete set of case papers is vital. Getting hold of everything we need isn’t easy, however, so paperwork
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The Care Quality Commission Raises Concerns About ‘Blanket Rules’ In Mental Health Services – Lucy Series

Posted on 29 January 2014 by Alison Tobin

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has a legal duty to monitor how mental health services are exercising their powers under the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) – a legal framework governing detention and compulsory treatment of people with mental health problems. Yesterday the CQC published its annual report, raising lots of very important issues. I
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PCCs in 100 Days: Early Observations from the Field – Matthew Davies and Sophie Chambers

Posted on 13 March 2013 by Alison Tobin

At the end of 2012, policing across England and Wales underwent significant reform with the election of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) across the 41 force areas outside London. Under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, PCCs were introduced to replace police authorities who were seen as the weak link in the tripartite
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The Francis Inquiry Report into Events at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust: The Proposed Duty of Candour – Professor Vivienne Harpwood

Posted on 12 February 2013 by Alison Tobin

Those with long memories will have read The Francis Report with a sense of déjà vu. The Report, published on February 6th 2013, contained echoes of recommendations made in the Kennedy Report into children’s heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary in 2001.  Both reports were the culmination of many months of investigating and sifting
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Use of Beth Din in Divorce Dispute Does Not Undermine the Primacy of Civil Law – Professor Gillian Douglas

Posted on 4 February 2013 by Alison Tobin

AI v MT [2013] EWHC 100 (Fam), 30 January 2013, a case concerning a divorce dispute between an orthodox Jewish couple, has received extensive publicity. It is an important case, but it does not, as some press reports have claimed, ‘open the way to Sharia divorces’. In fact, it reaffirms that the civil courts always
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Chaplin, Eweida, Ladele and McFarlane: the judgment – Frank Cranmer, Honorary Research Fellow

Posted on 17 January 2013 by Alison Tobin

On 15 January the European Court of Human Rights handed down its judgment in what began as four cases involving four separate claimants who argued, as committed Christians, that the actions of their employers had violated their rights to manifest their religion under the terms of the European Convention of Human Rights: Shirley Chaplin, Nadia Eweida,
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David v Goliath – David Dixon

Posted on 4 December 2012 by Alison Tobin

The third week of November was one of the most momentous weeks in the history of Wales.  On the Monday the Silk Commission published its first report.  It recommends that certain tax raising powers (including the variation of income tax should such a proposal be accepted in a referendum) should be devolved to Wales.  On
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The Leveson report – (ab)use of process? – Tim Press

Posted on 30 November 2012 by Alison Tobin

The wait is over, we now know Lord Leveson has steered close to, but avoided a compulsory scheme of press regulation.  The incentives to join the voluntary scheme proposed are therefore crucial. Leveson proposes four main incentives: the “kite mark” of quality journalism that will only be available to members less burdensome regulation by the
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