In April 2002, medical professionals in the fields of plastic and constructive surgery breathed a huge sigh of relief as the National Care Standards Commission Regulations came into force. After years of campaigning beforehand, it was hoped that there would be a strong element of control over this area of health care at long last.
Disagreement about the morality of cloning any life form has been raging within our society for a number of years now. Most countries have an outright ban on any research that extends to the cloning of another human being, but the cloning of other animals is definitely a grey area. This uncertainty is most probably what is responsible for the recent events that have attracted widespread news coverage.
The story broke with the revelation that milk from cloned cows had already entered the human food chain. Then it was revealed that meat from these animals had most likely entered the chain as well.
No one can fail to have been shocked and disturbed by the recent case from Iran of a woman condemned to death by stoning for a conviction of adultery. The obscenity of the punishment, against a woman half buried and defenceless, for what we see as a private act, mirrors our feelings of sadness at a regime which has used violence against a passive civil society to maintain itself.
But this dark shadow that has reached up to us from a forgotten age also serves to remind us of how law can be made to serve the ends of repression. And although we may be comfortable with the gender equality we have now, the legal systems of the West have certainly participated in this history of repression by men of women. So, how has the law's approach to adultery changed in this country? And can a parallel evolution of sharia be expected or possible?
The scrapping of training grants for legal aid lawyers has come like a bolt out of the blue for many in the legal profession, especially those who have grown used to the largesse of the Legal Services Commission.
The scheme, which was launched in 2002, provided awards to a maximum of £20,000 to legal aid firms. The funds could be used to pay the whole of the tuition fees of the Professional Skills Course, as well as a significant contribution to Legal Practice Course fees. Additionally, the salaries of trainee Solicitors were paid for the two years of their training contracts.
The Con-Lib coalition have been exceptionally busy over the past month in creating new legislation and implementing policies that they have always held dear. Some of these legal changes have had profound impacts upon many people in our society; indeed, some others have managed to raise the hackles on all of our backs, as we struggle to comprehend from where we are going to be able to find even more money to bail our country out.
There are many people who believe that whichever party assumed the position of our newest government, they would have been forced to tighten the reins of this country’s economy in a way that was never going to prove to be popular.
Our recent elections have prompted calls for a reform of the voting system. Many ideas have been put forward and one of the recommendations on the cards is an e-voting system, which will reduce the chaos that often ensues on election day. One of our Associate Members, Clint Diesto, from the Philippines, has written an article on the recent introduction of computerised voting in his country.
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Never has there been a better time to evaluate the possibility of a complete overhaul to the political voting systems of the UK. As our country has just voted for the first hung parliament in thirty-six years, terms such as ‘first past the post’ and ‘proportional representation’ are being bandied around by our politicians. Yet many people do not fully understand what is meant by this.
Nick Clegg (the leader of the Liberal Democrats party) has now formed an alliance with the Conservative Party, and this was always going to be under the proviso that the country would be presented with the opportunity of a referendum over a new voting system. David Cameron, the new Prime Minister, appears to have honoured this condition and has been heard to mention a referendum on a number of occasions.
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As the United Kingdom is still struggling to get back on its feet after one of the worst recessions in living memory, will the Government’s recent decision to put an end to Home Information Packs (HIPs) provide a much needed boost to the housing market? This is indeed the $64,000 question, and people appear to be in one of two camps over the issue.
One section of the housing industry firmly believes that the abolition of HIPs is now going to provide a massive boost to the still ailing market. They claim that people were put off from selling their property as a consequence of the additional expense that was involved in having to commission such a report and they generally saw the introduction of HIPs as the final nail in the coffin of the housing market at the time.
Common Areas of Expensive Legal Dispute – Part Two
In our previous article on common areas of legal dispute, we considered the pitfalls of entering into boundary disputes. I suggested that on some occasions it is better to consider the biblical saying ‘Love thy neighbour’ rather than resort to expensive legal proceedings. In this article we are considering complaints of nuisance, intimidation and harassment. Surprisingly, the teachings of Jesus, provides us with a possible starting point to avoid these types of disputes, with his golden rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. It is not only Christianity that provides this simple ethical code; it appears in every other major religion. Unfortunately, despite its being a fairly simple ethical principle, it is very difficult to apply in practice.
Common Areas of Expensive Legal Dispute – Part One
It is not often that I resort to the Bible to advise clients, but where disputes with neighbours are concerned this can be the best advice. What may seem to be a trivial issue can often explode into a case of biblical proportions. In this article we will consider one of the most common areas of friction between neighbours, which involves disagreements about boundaries.
Consider this quote from an Appeal Court judge, Lord Justice Ward, reported in April 2009:
“The lesson is never learned that those who fight for their principles frequently end up paying for them…Each of the parties have spent in the region of £40,000 in bringing their case to this court, far more than the land in dispute could ever be worth.”