Dictum Law Magazine

DICTUM Issue 3 April 2011

The Student Magazine of London Metropolitan University Faculty of Law, Governance and International Relations

Goodbye to LPC Funding Welcoming the new Deputy Vice- Chancellor A closer look at London Met

LPC

Fraud and the Juror Helpful tips from the Career Services

Lord Walker writes about Mesothelioma

Libya Crisis in the

context of International Law

Sex, Drugs and Rock N’ Roll in the Jury Room The Law of the Rising Sun PLUS

Agony Aunt Rantings of a Madman Reveals himself Madam Geneva

What’s Inside 04 A welcome message from the ViceChancellor 10 Law of the Rising Sun A closer look at the Japanese Legal System

22 Withdrawal of LPC Funding threatens access to legal profession The implications of the banks’ action to pull out of LPC loans.

13 Welsh people vote to give more power to their assembly Welsh assembley given green signal for direct law-making powers

17 Mesothelioma- An example of the Law of Unintended Consequences?

Lord Walker gives his verdict to the issue of Mesothelioma

18 Prof. Peter McCaffery: A glimmer of hope and inspiration A welcome interview of the new Deputy Vice-Chancellor

23 An introduction to the Bar All you need to know about the Bar Profession

19 Mike Meehan Interview Behind the smile and personality

27 International Development in Africa The reason why Africa is lagging behind

30 Sex, Drugs and Rock N’ Roll in the Jury Room

Edwin Shorts tells us why silence is upheld inside and outside the jury room

32 Fraud and the Juror

Chris Monaghan analyses the importance of juror suitability in complex fraud trials

21 Up Close and Personal with Emily Goodhand

Editor’s Note Writing countless essays, meeting deadlines, preparing for exams- all of which triggers adrenaline rush. It is again that time of the year where we do what we do best- multitasking. It may seem a daunting prospect but these are the things we have learned since we embarked the life of a university student. Alas!

Time flies so fast and before we know it, we have had surpassed every hurdle.

Once again, we are proud to bring you the third issue of Dictum packed with the freshest and most controversial stories; legal commentaries from our valued lecturers; inspiring and informative columns and agony aunt which will definitely make you laugh.

I am thrilled to bring you Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, our very own Mansfield Law Society Patron, who wrote about the uncertainty which lies upon Mesothelioma cases. We are also proud to have interviewed Mike Meehan and discovered why he is well-loved by students.

Ever wondered what’s inside the mind of a Deputy Vice-Chancellor? Welcoming him, Prof. Peter McCaffrey has opened up and shared his thoughts regarding the education sector crisis, his vision for London Met and why he thinks there is something special about our university. We have also tracked down Emily Goodhand and spoke about why she is named as the top legal tweeters by Times Law. Our very own Chris Monaghan also wrote an article about why it is important to focus on the issue of juror suitability in complex fraud trials and not the symbolic rhetoric associated with the right to trial by jury.

Edwin Shorts is back, giving us thought-provoking insights about the secrecy of the jury’s deliberation. Not only that, we bring you a journey to Japan and found out more about their legal system and why they are indeed a great nation. Bringing you the freshest stories from a legal viewpoint, we also have IR students who co-wrote an article with Dita Gill about the legal implications of the Libya crisis.

I would also like to take this opportunity to greet a belated Happy Birthday and congratulate our very own Lord Maurice Glasman who was just recently elevated to the House of Lords.

I am also delighted to announce that the recent Students’ Union elections has been the most successful elections in the history of our union obtaining a turnout of 12%, higher than UCL’s turnout this year. Congratulations to all who got elected and good luck!

Easter is just around the corner, you may have booked for a nice Spanish break away or perhaps planning to join the Royal wedding celebration, whatever you do, enjoy it. But do not forget that it is also an opportunity for you to take the time to study and do what is required of you. Also, to all final year students, please be reminded to fill in the National Student Survey as this is a great opportunity for you to voice out your feedbacks to the university.

I hope that you will enjoy reading this special issue and continue supporting it by getting involved.

I now leave you with this quote by an American physician and author George Sheehan and he said “Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be”.

Kristoffer James M. Canlas Chief Editor

The top legal tweeter talks to Dictum

Apology: In the second issue of Dictum, published in January 2011, the article written by Peter Lampier at page 16 was missing the following words “have to develop a thick skin” at the last paragraph. The sentence should read “But if you are going to survive as a City trainee, you have to develop a thick skin.” We apologise for this mistake and for any confusion it may have caused.

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Dictum

April 2011

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WELCOME MESSAGE

Welcome Message from the Vice-Chancellor It gives me great pleasure to help introduce the third edition of Dictum, the student magazine of the Faculty of Law, Governance and International Relations. It is great to see student media alive and well within the University.

The LGIR Faculty is a special one in the University in that it opens up a different world for students – not only the world of employment and access to some of the professions but the interconnected globalised world of which we a part. It is crucial for London, a global city, to have graduates who understand the world around them and have the cultural awareness and social responsibility to participate fully in that world.

One of the tasks as Vice-Chancellor, I particularly enjoy is reaching out to students and to be given an opportunity to keep you up to date with some of the changes taking place both within London Met and in relation to national policy.

The University is coming very close to finalising its course offering for 2012 entry students. We are shaping the offering of our courses to be more responsive to students - by increasing the length of teaching to 30 weeks, giving you more contact time, but also allowing you to study a module more in depth over the course of the academic year. It is also crucial we give you, our students, value for money as new UK and EU students, will be paying for the whole cost of the course after 2012, as international students do now.

Students starting prior to 2012 should not worry about fees being increased from their present level but it is essential we get things right before that point. There may be some limited changes to course offerings before then but these will be communicated clearly by your Dean and other academic staff.

One of the key things we are building upon is improving the student experience here at London Met. It is not only course offerings and teaching that is important but other things as well. Over the past few months the Students’ Union offices at North have been refurbished with the addition of a student radio station and the new Learning Centre at Holloway Road has increased the amount of IT facilities and group working areas. As we gradually place more facilities into faculties around the University this will give a greater sense of identity with the academic faculties – one that is clear already within LGIR, but also allow decisions to be made locally which will speed up response times to queries about assessment and timetables.

Clearly this is a time of great change within the University but wherever we make changes it is being done to improve the student experience and our offer to students as we move into a new era for higher education.

If you have any thoughts or questions on this do please share them with me by email: m.gillies@londonmet.ac.uk Malcolm Gillies Vice-Chancellor

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EDITORIAL COLUMN

Straight from the Briefcase

By Kristoffer James M. Canlas, Chief Editor

Tempus Fugit

R

emembering my first day at university nearly three years ago, I can say it was quite surreal. It is still fresh to me that I came at 8:30 in the morning for my 10 am lecture at Jewry Street and if you think that was a record, it wasn’t! My now friend Nina currently holds the record for coming to a lecture two hours ahead of the time; BEAT THAT! I can still feel the excitement of going to the Fresher’s fair to grab a goody bag or two. The feeling of the need to talk to everyone so you wouldn’t find yourself alone is still fresh in my mind. That was then and this is now, here I am, writing my final column for Dictum.

What I learned over the course of three years is that the most distinctive work of a law student’s mind is the ability to decipher the legal issues, take another’s point of view and see life and its problems from a point of view that may be different from one’s own. We, as law students are trained to be able to live on the edge of respect in all matters intellectual; to examine without heat the burning questions of the day, openness, flexibility of mind and sound judgment.

You v The World [2011] 1 LMU The first in-depth case I learned was the case of R v R [1992] 1 A.C. 599, HOL (Studying Law) where at common law, rape was defined as sexual penetration of a woman forcibly and against her will. However, the law contained a number of legal and procedural requirements that made the prosecution of rape complex. This case put the final nail in the coffin and held that a husband may rape his wife if no consent has been given. Who could ever forget what could possibly be the most famous case in law about the rotten snail in the ginger beer bottle (Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] UKHL 100) which paved way for the “neighbour principle” we all know today?

Most of the controversial cases we have read were all life-changing in a way that they have moulded the legal system we all study at present.

After three years, we, the students of London Met class 2011, will all be entering our own battles outside university against everyone at what could be the largest court ever known to man— the WORLD. They say that the world is our platform. University is just a tiny part of it; lectures, seminars, exams, course works, you name it—these are all part of a big training. As law students, we are all facing countless number of hurdles that are not easy to surpass. Uncertainty awaits us. Confusion will hang over us and there may be times where we will feel that what we have done for three years is not enough. No matter what happens, we should all be like the proverbial bee; though it finds that every rose has a thorn, it always comes back loaded with honey from its rambles.

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After graduation, we will be embarking on a journey of endless arguments with patience; stress will come to haunt us whether we are in court, law firm or in a chamber; pressure will pile up some heavy paper works on our desks that will dwarf the magnanimous Big Ben and our relationship with sleep might as well be a thing of the past. There will be times when we will find our work mundane, but it is the enthusiasm within ourselves and our drive to win which makes a tedious job interesting. We are not only trained to dissect case laws, analyse statutes, interpret the law and apply it, but also to be persistent in winning an argument, alleviate stress to perform better and surmount pressure to achieve great things.

No “Me” without “Them” As it once said before, family is the only rock that stays and the only institution that perfectly works. Ever since I was born they have been there, I want to thank first of all my mum who has always been there, never relaxing her grips and inspired by her wisdom, love, kind precepts and sense of direction to drive away clouds of darkness whenever I am in need of sunshine. To my dad who has supported me financially and to my brother who has been brilliant in designing this fruition, for enduring sleepless nights just to perfect this magazine and for being patient and brilliant brother as he has always been. To my aunt for her great wit and sense of humour.

Dictum wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the amazing people anyone could have hoped of working with. Gordon and Steven, you are not just my associate editors but people I am proud to call “mates”. Kamila, Gabriele and Mohammed, each of you is a huge part of the magazine, it has been a great honour! David, I chose you to become my successor for a reason, and we both know what that reason is. I trust that you will take Dictum to newer heights and achieve great things. Fazl, my newly-found best mate, you rock! Thank you for the support and encouragement. Sabrina, Aaron and Jasmin, you all have been there since the start.

Dictum is very fortunate to have people like you. To Sara, you’re a friend for life. Thank you for the love, I owe you a lot!

To my PAA Lesley, thank you for providing me the kick in the backside whenever I need it. To Edwin, I can’t tell in a few words how much I admire your insight and personality. With each encounter with you, the support and advice bestowed on me is great knowledge and opportunity. To Nigel, your commitment to teaching and perception to life has taught me a lot. I want to say a big thank you to all the faculty members who have contributed to the success of this magazine and to the sponsors who funded us especially to the SU who will support Dictum indefinitely. To the whole team of Dictum, everyone who came and left, THANK YOU and WELL DONE! This is it, the cherry on the cake!

To my family at the Students’ Union, it has been an absolute privilege. To all my lecturers and tutors, the knowledge you have instilled in me is priceless.

To everyone at the Undergraduate Centre and at the Careers Services, I couldn’t have done things without your support. To the people at the Print Centre, Alan and especially to Simon, thank you for your assistance and commitment to quality.

Last but not least, I want to thank all our readers and I would like to seize this opportunity to invite everyone who might be interested to contribute and be part of it.

ABC of Success We will be graduating in a few months time, another chapter is ending and another one is starting. We all need to remember that the skyline is never the boundary of the world. Time flies and so they say and before you know it, you will wake up in a world, different from what it is yesterday.

It’s probably enough that you know that the hands of a clock are slowly moving and time is running.

Like our stay here at London Met, not so long ago we were first years, quite unsure of the field we are in. But we know that we weren’t going to be first years forever. We didn’t spend all our three years doing case notes, doing moot court trials or writing countless essays. We learned to build an argument and prove that it is the right one.

We learned that Lord Denning was, most of the time, the odd one out amongst the Lordships. We learned to understand 18th century case laws and apply them correctly. We learned to accept that in law, there is never a right or wrong answer, it always comes down to how strong or weak your arguments are and how you structure them. We learned to value “education” and understood “life” in a deeper context.

I am confident that all of us, despite the struggle and uncertainties that lie ahead, will come out strong and flourishing. Do not just be a good solicitor or a barrister, be the best solicitor or barrister you could ever be! Try and win every case that will come your way, be it in court or in life.

After all, success is that old ABC- Ability, Breaks and Courage. Life is like an essay, which we write every day. It is judged not based on whether the answers are right or wrong, but on whether or not what you write makes sense. Erasures are allowed and so we should always remember that there is nothing in the world really valuable that does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding and a well-directed pursuit.

Kristoffer James M. Canlas is a final year LLB Student. He is the Founder and Chief Editor of Dictum. Aside from being a trustee of the student council, he is also NUS delegate, ambassador for the East London Business Alliance and works as an intern at a west london law firm.

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EDITORIAL COLUMN

Power, Violence and The State Gordon Nixon, Associate Editor, asks: Does Violence Really Change Laws?

M

any of you, if not all of you will have seen in the news about the March for the Alternative protest on March 26th. You will have seen the peaceful march attended by 100,000s which ended in Hyde Park, and you will have also seen the violence which ensued, caused by around 500 activists who broke off from the main march. Both sides argue that that their method is more effective but do protest movements really change laws?

This is a very hard question to answer as the two forms of protest often go together.

Taking an early example of women’s suffrage which started in earnest in 1872, like today, there was both a peaceful and violent element. The suffragists were peaceful and raised awareness through peaceful demonstrations however the movement was slow.

The Women’s Social and Political Union (Suffragettes) was a militant branch of the movement and was born in 1903 using the motto ‘Deeds not words’. The WSPU used hunger strikes and harassment campaigns to get their point across. Their campaign escalated to burning stately homes and bombing building such as Westminster Abbey, culminating in Emily Davison throwing herself under the Kings Horse at Ascot and killing herself. Although this violence helped raise awareness of women’s suffrage, it was widely condemned by men and women.

Women eventually got the vote after World War 1 but the official story is that it was a reward for their war efforts and not as a result of the protests.

In New York in 1969, the Stonewall riots launched the gay rights movement. These spontaneous riots against police marked the beginning of the fight for LGBT equality and only a year later, the first Pride march was held. The violence was used to tell the people that the status quo was not acceptable. Since then however, the movement has used peaceful means.

Between 1984 and 1985 the miners’ strike brought the country to its knees with rolling blackouts as miners throughout the country refused to work.

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Violence did occur on occasion, however this is widely reported in many sources to have been initiated by the police each time. In 1991, over £400,000 was paid in compensation to 39 miners by South Yorkshire Police who used the same tactics of charging which we have seen in recent protests. Despite this prolonged strike and protest, the government did not relent and the miners lost.

In 1990, the Poll Tax riots not only caused a reversal of government policy but also hugely contributed to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher. 250,000 people peacefully marched through London in opposition.

However in mid-afternoon due to poor police communication, mounted police at the front of the march charged in an attempt to force the marchers back without realising that they were blocked at the back by another line of police. This ‘kettle’ combined with the charge of the police caused the marchers to riot in an attempt to escape. The rioters using similar tactics to the March 26th rally caused damage on a scale vastly bigger than what we have seen recently. The result was condemnation by most political parties and groups. However as mentioned previously, they won and there was a reversal in government policy.

In 2003, the largest protest in London’s history marched through the city’s streets.

The Stop the War coalition organised a peaceful protest of around 1,000,000 people, opposing the war in Iraq but to no avail.

Late last year we saw the largest sustained series of demonstrations ever seen in London. These were the marches against the rise in tuition fees which were commonly termed Day X. These were mostly peaceful, however there were violent elements which broke off. These combined with the police tactics caused widespread condemnation, however they did raise awareness. These were however ultimately fruitless with the rise in fees going ahead despite widespread opposition.

Although I have only managed to briefly cover a few events in history, it does appear that movements with the help of violence have been more successful. However this is highly debatable and a very contentious issue, of which I have only scratched the surface.

I leave you with this poem which was written by Adrian Mitchell and read by Celia Mitchell on the day.

If you’re looking for trouble, here’s how to start, blow up the theatres, tear down the art. Burn down the libraries, and concert halls, cut your jazz and ballet and then cut off your balls, and be a serial killer of culture, a serial killer of the soul. If you’re looking for trouble take the artists you’ve got, stack their works all around them, and torch the lot. The human soul is hungry, and so’s the human heart, the food and drink makes them feel and think, it comes from works of art, and the human soul without art, is locked in a dungeon cell. If you take your knife and cut the arts, you can cut your throat as well, ‘cause you’re serial killer of culture, a serial killer of the soul. If you’re looking for trouble, cut your grants to the poor, seek out the old and sick, cut them some more, suffer little children, to go to school in hell, then watch them burn your cities, and your country estates as well.

‘Cause you’re a serial killer of Britain, A serial killer of its soul.

Gordon Nixon is a Final Year Business Law Student.

He is the Co- Founder and Associate Editor of Dictum. He is a lobbyist and has a keen interest in politics.

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EDITORIAL COLUMN

Civil Justice System Changes: For Better or Worse?

Steven Robinson, Associate Editor critically analyses our society’s damaging compensation culture.

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he 28th of March 2011 saw the first major reform of the civil justice syst em in over 15 years, which will introduce a controversial overhaul of ‘no win no fee’ deals, being announced by Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke. The reform is designed to put an end to the so-called “explosion” in lawyers’ fees and to put an end to the trend our society is coming to, revolving around a damaging compensation culture.

The radical move will result in £50 million being slashed from lawyers’ fees in claims where the legal costs currently greatly exceed the damages won on a regular basis. The changes will introduce an American style contingency fee system, as well as 90 per cent of all accident claims, from road traffic to smaller medical claims, could have the opportunity to be settled out of court via an online system in the future. The scope of small claims courts, which do not need legal representation in their cases, will be tripled in size from the current £5,000 claim maximum, to £15,000, and the parties will not automatically be referred towards mediation to ease the cases on both sides.

Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, said that the costs associated with nowin, no-fee claims had become a burden on businesses and public bodies. When introducing the reform, he was quoted stating that “an effective system of civil justice is one of the cornerstones of a civilised society. Without it businesses couldn’t trade, individuals couldn’t protect their liberties, and government couldn’t be held to account.”

He then continued, claiming that “With no major reform for 15 years, the civil justice system has got out of kilter… Businesses and other people who have been sued can find that spiralling legal costs, slow court processes, unnecessary litigation and the no-win, no-fee structures, which mean greater payments to lawyers than to claimants, are setting them back millions each year.”

The reforms aim to help put an end to the current fear of a compensation culture that had “put a stranglehold on the activities of businesses and public bodies” and would hopefully restore our faith in effective justice, Mr Clarke added.

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“Most people dread going to court because of all the cost and anxiety it involves.

We must change that by helping them to avoid court where possible and cutting costs where that is unavoidable.” Legal professionals, however, have cautioned the government that these reforms will merely result in individuals receiving lower damages under the reforms, which follow a major review by Lord Justice Jackson last year.

With the present system, legal representatives can currently charge double their normal fees if successful, but these success fees are paid by the defendants, not the claimants. In future success fees will be capped at 25 per cent (in accident claims but not others) and will have to be carried by the claimant, and so taken out of the damages given. This will however be made allowance for in part as damages awards will be raised by 10 per cent.

Linda Lee, President of the Law Society of England and Wales, said: “The Ministry of Justice is about to implement a devastating attack on access to justice in the mistaken belief that ordinary people will be able to stick up for themselves against local and central government, the medical profession, landlords, big business and other authorities… Taken together with the legal aid reforms, these plans on civil costs funding mean that ordinary people won’t be able to use legal routes to seek redress for wrongs they have suffered.” This is indeed a valid point when you look at the legal knowledge needed to take these claims forward, and although in no way is a comprehensive legal knowledge usually needed in these cases, there is a lot more than possessed by the average layperson. This would, in turn, result in an increase of demand in services like ACAS and the CAB, who are currently stretched enough as it is.

Yes, it is understandable that the move is aimed at cutting the number of unmeritorious claims and making the justice system fairer for smaller companies, landlords and similar defendants who often cannot afford to defend themselves from no-win, no-fee lawsuits.

Muiris Lyons, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, further warned that fewer people will have access to justice under the reforms, and Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, claims: “This review has nothing to do with justice. It is simply lining the pockets of insurers at the expense of claimants seeking compensation for injuries caused by the negligence of others.” However the aforementioned insurers made a response through the Association of British Insurers, who said that motorists could look forward to cheaper premiums if Lord Justice Jackson’s recommendations are implemented.

In summary, the changes will have a clear impact on changing the future of the legal industry indefinitely if they are implemented, and while it will arguably restrict access to legal aid, and possibly make a less lucrative industry for our future careers, we have to look at the types of claims that are made, and how we are getting further into a “nanny-state” fearing legal action from any member of public. We must ask ourselves, how long until we are in the same situation as America, with individuals such as Stella Liebeck (inspiration for the Stella Awards ®, a must-read for anyone interested in the American Legal system and it’s ridiculous claims cases), who, out of her own clumsiness, spilled a cup of McDonald’s coffee on her lap and was awarded $2.9 million in damages. Further more, is that the kind of society we want in Britain, or should we be fixing the problem before it gets beyond the point of no return, with a history of precedent-setting cases in place.

Steven is a Final year LLB Student.

He is the Co- Founder and Associate Editor of Dictum. He is also the current president of the Mansfield Law Society of the Faculty.

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EDITORIAL COLUMN From the Features Editor

By Kamila Jafri, Features Editor

H

ey guys!

I’m a final year LLB student and have had the wonderful opportunity of being editor of the features section of Dictum this year. Having written articles for two of the three issues that have come out so far and interacting with all the talented students who wrote feature articles, it has been an amazing experience working with the entire Dictum team; one that I shall surely miss.

This issue features section includes a very interesting piece on Japanese law by Ricky, ‘A Critique on the Law on Corporate Liability’ written by Jade and a fascinating article written by Gordon who had the opportunity to interview @Copyrightgirl – ‘who was recently named as one of the top legal tweeters in England by Times Law. As always the Dictum team is always open to new writers and encourages all law students to assist with the compilation of this magazine. Not only is it a fun experience it is also something you can add to your CV or brag about in your personal statement when and if you are applying for an LLM etc.

Being a law student is tough, but not if you get the hang of the course at the very beginning and keep up with it. Unfortunately, this is the last issue of this term and since I’m graduating this June, its time for me to move onto the next step in my life, but before I go, I would like to give you a few handy tips on how to survive being a law student! Hope you find these helpful: • Do not use Wikipedia as a source in your coursework.

• When writing your coursework, make sure you do your referencing and bibliography as you go along.

• Complete the final draft of your coursework before the actual due date.

• Do not simply rely on lecture notes, Nutshells or Law Express etc. when preparing for your exam.

• Do not buy all the textbooks listed in the module handbook booklist, instead, go to a book store and flip through the pages of the various books listed and buy whichever one you think suits you.

• Book an appointment with your tutor for feedback on your exam or coursework. It helps you understand where you went wrong and how to get a better grade next time.

• Try attempting the formative assessments in your module handbooks and hand it to your tutor for marking.

It really helps once you get feedback and its great for practice– you get tips on how to improve your grade and even get a first.

• Do some sort of volunteer work or internship which can help improve your CV- You can book an appointment with Heera Rajah, the Careers Counselor if you require any assistance.

• Make sure you remember application closing dates to apply for your training contract, a postgraduate degree, the LPC etc.

• Pick up a free copy of different Law magazines from the Law Office and check out various websites such as Lawyer2B for the latest information on the legal world.

• It is also a good idea to read different Law Journals from Westlaw and Lexis Nexis etc. if you wish to have the extra factor in your exam or coursework, that would want a tutor to award you a first.

Hope you guys have a jolly good time at LondonMet. I know I did and I can say “Proud to be LondonMet”!

With well wishes, Kamila

“Two Europe’s (?!)” and the prisoners’ right to vote Gabriel Ruberto, News Editor draws the line between EU & ECtHR and explains why

prisoner’s right to vote is beyond the powers of both

T

he ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that the UK is in violation of prisoners’ human rights under the Convention for not allowing them to vote has caused great controversy and anger. In particular, some newspapers used the occasion to reinforce the argument that the UK would be better off without any influence from European institutions.

The headlines of some tabloids assumed that the European Court of Human Rights was part of the European Union. On 11th February The Daily Express titled: “Britain in the EU: this must be the end”. Similarly, the Daily Star claimed: “Prisoners’ votes: EU can stick it”. Other newspapers, such as The Sun and the Daily Mail, launched undetermined attacks at “Europe” in general.

In fact, the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights are two separate institutions. The ECtHR was established by the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and offers a judicial remedy of last resort for individuals who claim that their human rights have been abused by a contracting party to the Convention.

The court is the most important body of the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe should not be confused with the European Union and its Council (the Council of the EU). The Council of Europe has 47 members, compared to the 27 of the European Union. The Council of Europe is older, having been founded in 1949 by the Treaty of London, but is nowadays of considerable less importance than the European Union.

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It does not pass binding laws and its members share common policies only in a very narrow number of areas, unlike what happens in the EU. The principal objective of the Council of Europe is that of promoting human rights, the rule of law and the democratic principles based on the European Convention of Human Rights throughout Europe.

The Council of Europe must also be distinguished from the European Council, i.e. the meeting of the heads of State and/or government of the member states of the EU for the purpose of planning EU policy. The only two bodies that arguably influence each other are the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJ) and the ECtHR. Although the European Union is not a party to the Convention and the CJ has never explicitly asserted that the ECHR is binding upon the EU, the CJ has been repeatedly referring to the “special significance” of the Convention as an important source of inspiration and influence for the principles of EU law.

However, the question of the right to vote for prisoners does not involve any of the above-cited issues, as UK domestic law currently denies this right. Thus, it is quite difficult to explain why confusion between the two institutions should arise. This is particularly true if we consider that the Convention is now part of UK legislation, after the Human Rights Act 1998. Therefore, it appears absurd to yell against “Europe’s unelected dictators”— as The Sun did — when the Convention has been passed into domestic law by elected British MPs. Moreover, a character that surely those newspapers acknowledge as a British hero, Winston Churchill, called for the creation of a Council of Europe in a famous speech at the University of Zurich in 1946. It could be said that the creation of the Council and of the ECHR were truly inspired by the Conservative politician.

Whatever one might say on giving prisoners the right to vote, the way some British newspapers addressed the issue is indeed regrettable. One might be tempted to say that either some journalists think that people are ignorant and their ignorance is to be taken advantage of; or the journalists themselves are ignorant.

The former argument would be morally despicable. The second one would just be sad.

Similarly, in recent times the ECtHR has been willing to admit “indirect” complaints against EU acts which are brought against one or more member states. The reasoning behind this argument is that the responsibility of the States for violations of Convention rights would continue even after such States have delegated powers to international organisations, such as the EU. If the EU became a member of the ECHR, the EU institutions would be “directly” subject to the jurisdiction of the ECtHR in cases of alleged human rights violations.

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EDITORIAL COLUMN Could Muammar Gaddafi face the International Criminal Court?

David Burton, Incoming Chief Editor, 3rd Year LLB Student

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ilitary intervention is well underway by an international coalition in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and one thing is clear that when it comes to an end whether that be in a matter of weeks or months, then a real question must be asked, unless the embattled Colonel Gaddafi succumbs to the coalition’s bombardment or he is victorious in retaining some degree of power what becomes of the Colonel? Two options have been suggested, one of which is that Gaddafi goes into exile in a country that sympathises with his situation or perhaps more favourable but increasingly unlikely and an option that would inevitably result in a propaganda war against the west is the trial of the Libyan leader in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The 3rd of March 2011 was a date that added further complications regarding Gaddafi’s exit as the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on the order of the United Nations Security Council by way of Resolution 1970 opened an investigation into the alleged ‘crimes against humanity’ committed by Muammar Gaddafi and his closest advisors – this investigation greatly restricts the leader’s attempts to go into

exile with the only possibility being to reside in a country that is not a member of the UN. The ICC’s prosecutor is investigating six incidents of violence against Libyan civilians allegedly committed in February and has stated that he is 100% certain that his investigation would lead to charges against Gaddafi. The ICC sits at The Hague in the Netherlands and is governed by the Rome Statute that entered into force on the 1st July 2002 and has a membership of 114 sovereign states with a further 34 counties who have signed the treaty but have not ratified it including Russia and the United States of America. The ICC classifies itself as the first permanent treaty based criminal court whose intention is to help end impunity for crimes that concern the international community. An action against a crime of international concern is initiated from a referral by a Member State, the UN Security Council or by private communications. The next stage is for the ICC’s prosecutor to conduct an analysis of the allegation to determine whether the action is within the ICC’s jurisdiction as there must be a “reasonable basis to proceed” in taking forward an investigation, this is provided for by Article 53 of the Statute.

It is this prolonged procedure that is often criticised as opponents believe that the ICC has a limited reach which may be an issue that would surely be tested by a criminal investigation into the Libyan regime. Therefore this raises the question of how the ICC’s jurisdiction is established. It is based upon the principle that a state must accept the court’s jurisdiction as a state needs to agree to give the ICC the authority to investigate an international crime that has occurred on the states territory as defined in Article 12.2a Rome Statute. This produces a further issue as Libya is not currently a party to the Rome Statue however Article 13b gives the Security Council the power to refer a case to the court. This provides the ICC with the jurisdiction to bring an action against a non member state and was attained against Gaddafi when Resolution 1970 which attempts to maintain international peace and security was passed. It is this ability by the Security Council that some critics argue leads to hypocrisy as the passing of resolutions against crimes are given on a discretionary basis.

The ICC is a clear example of an attempt by the International community to show its commitment to help prevent the atrocities committed in the 20th century, however for the court to be completely effective it is evident that the referral procedure needs greater clarity and the court’s jurisdiction must be expanded.

It’s not all about reading pile after pile of books!

Why learning law is not just confined with reading books? Explains Fazl Buchari, Careers Editor

E

ver wonder what else you could do that might be slightly more on the fun side, besides going over law reports and journals while studying for your legal career?

Actually one of the reasons I found myself taking up the route of becoming a lawyer was through enjoying a few movies that were law related.

It’s probably best to name some of the ones I found most entertaining. Most of these are well known and if you haven’t already seen them… use up your free time and look into them. It might change your opinion about your legal career completely whether good or bad.

To Kill a Mockingbird starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch has to be top of the list. As a lawyer in a Depression era South he defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, whilst protecting his kids against prejudice. It shows how good character and determination leads to the making of a good lawyer.

Amistad - starring Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins. This movie is about a mutiny aboard a slave ship in 1839 that is travelling towards the north-eastern coast of America. Much of the story involves a court-room drama about the free man who led the revolt. I wasn’t taken by Amistad

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Amistad until the near end when former President John ‘Quincy’ Adams (Hopkins) came up with this closing speech in the U.S. Supreme Court…

‘This man is black. We can all see that. But, can we also see as easily, that which is equally true? That he is the only true hero in this room. Now, if he were white, he wouldn’t be standing before this court fighting for his life. If he were white and his enslavers were British, he wouldn’t be standing, so heavy the weight of the medals and honors we would bestow upon him. Songs would be written about him.

The great authors of our times would fill books about him. His story would be told and retold, in our classrooms. Our children, because we would make sure of it, would know his name as well as they know Patrick Henry’s. Yet, if the South is right, what are we to do with that embarrassing, annoying document, The Declaration of Independence? What of its conceits?

“All men created equal,” “inalienable rights,” “life, liberty,” and so on and so forth? What on Earth are we to do with this? I have a modest suggestion.’ [Tears papers in half] Amistad is an extremely inspirational film especially for those interested in human rights.

If you have ever had any interest in the how the judiciary works within the U.S. armed forces then you may like to see Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. Tom Cruise also stars in John Grisham’s legal adaptation, The Firm.

A further exceptional watch is I am Sam starring Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Here a mentally retarded man fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter and in the process teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family. Pfeiffer puts on a good show of how patience is vital to connecting with a client.

Another good flick from John Grisham’s novels is Runaway Jury which stars John Cusack, Dustin Hoffman and Rachel Weisz.

Here a juror (on the inside) and a woman (on the outside) manipulated a court trial involving a major gun manufacturer.

Films like those mentioned above act as excellent mediums when deciding what legal route you would like to take in the future i.e. becoming a Solicitor or taking the Bar. Watching a legally inspired film is a very worthwhile pastime and I hope you enjoy watching one or more of these.

Dictum April 2011

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FEATURES

Law of the Rising Sun

By Ricky O’Brien, 2nd year LLB Student looks at the Japanese Legal System

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isions of Samurai and Geisha, bullet trains and temples, Sushi and Sake reverber ate in minds when Japan is mentioned. But how does this exotic, alien, yet familiar land deal with matters of law? Well, like all things from this exceptional nation - in a very Japanese way!

Firstly, it is a widely held view that the Japanese are actually non-litigious people. This does not mean that contentious issues do not exist at all.

After all, how could there not be in the 36th most densely populated country in the world? (2005 data in United Nations World Population Prospects, 2004 revision) Confucianism asked for a harmonious ordered society; therefore the Japanese often resort to much less confrontational and public dispute resolution. A lack of legal consciousness, high cost, slow moving courts and their predictable outcomes have all taken the blame for this in contemporary thinking.

Mark D. West discusses this idea in his book Law in Everyday Japan, using Karaoke disputes to extract understanding. Due to the lack of restrictions on the location of late night bars, Karaoke can often cause tension in densely populated residential areas, where most residents do not appreciate the latest J Pop anthems being blared out till 6am.

To rectify such situations the Japanese have three options available: to go to the police, sue in court or opt for the mediation complaint procedure. The police option is only useful in one-off instances, after arriving and reprimanding the offending bar the neighbour will be instructed to seek other means to settle dispute for the long term. To go to court is a costly and the legal system is so full of bureaucracy that results may take many months.

The Kono family did however take this option. A karaoke bar was opened two floors below the family home and after 5 months of drunken patrons singing till the early hours eventually closed. Apparently the damage had been done and Hanako Kono was found in the corner of a room crying late one night. The family sued the owner of the bar but the court found that poor Hanako had been neurotic before the bar and was only entitled to limited compensation for disturbance. This is one of the few cases that have been brought to court concerning Karaoke bars, the others concern copyrights and contracts and a particularly interesting one of assault with a microphone stand!

But back to noise disturbance, historically, communities would attempt to resolve disputes internally.

However this has now evolved and mediation, arbitration and conciliation have been formalised giving Japan the most advanced set of structures for this in the world. Noise Pollution Complaint Councillors were created to avoid court action after the pollution disasters of the 1960s.

These councillors are civil servants with, generally, some legal training who will encourage an agreement in view of the likely outcome in court, no damages will be awarded but it is free. The complaints procedure is a ‘big step, just like suing’ as an interviewee commented in West’s book, another going on to say ‘Suing ruins neighbourhoods...Going to Court is the last resort. It just causes problems’.

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Dictum April 2011

Civil cases aside, criminal cases are also rife with idiosyncrasies. The most glaring would be the fact that there is a 99% conviction rate. Once the prosecution decide to proceed with a case, the legal scale tips in their favour to ensure they secure a conviction and do not ‘lose face’. To an innocent accused this is a terrifying experience as described in ‘Soredemo Boku wa Yattenai (Even So, I Didn’t Do It)’ - the 2006 film by Masayuki Suo. So is this film an accurate example?

Are innocent’s convicted in show trials? Or are the police and prosecution nearly perfect in their actions?

There is a substantial amount of evidence to suggest the latter is not true. Confessions are held in utmost importance in court and are believed even if evidence suggests otherwise. This becomes a serious problem when we look at how confessions are often obtained. Suspects can be held in police custody for 72 hours without charge, during which time the suspect may not be granted access to a lawyer.

If this period is insufficient for the police they can request a ten day extension, up to two times of which 99% are granted.

Cases of miscarriages of justice are plentiful and include Govinda Prasad Mainali and Samaya. However recently, Toshikazu Sugaya was awarded a record 92 million yen (£700,500), the most permitted, after spending 17 years in prison because of incorrect DNA evidence and a retracted confession. In an effort to address this controversially, trials by jury were reintroduced in 2009 for murder and rape cases. These lay judge’s, considered by some as lacking the knowledge and expertise of judges, decide on the verdict and also the sentencing but must have one professional judge in agreement. The first case saw a man convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years. However, only time will tell if justice is more effective with this addition.

Justice is something that is often irrelevant in Japan which actually has one of the lowest crime rates of all first world countries. There are 5 murders for every 1,000,000 in Japan compared to 14 in the UK and 43 in the USA (figures from www.nationmaster.com). However, the infamous crime organisation, Yakuza, ensures that crime is still present and Jake Adelstein’s book ‘Tokyo Vice’ offers a fantastic firsthand account.

This organisation shares international recognition along with the Italian Mafia and the Chinese Triads all gaining wealth through illegal gambling, drugs, prostitution, loan shaking, protection rackets and a few front companies for good measure.

Differences emerge when we look at the profiles of these groups, the Yakuza are very much out of the shadows owning corporate headquarters and being viewed as a necessary evil and benefiting from the live and let live attitude of the populous. They claim to be ‘chivalrous organisations’ descended from Samurai and used the 1995 Kobe earthquake to perpetuate this image.

The people have now started to feel uneasy with their malevolent influence and the police have started to strike back, prompted by a gang’s lack of obedience to the unwritten code of conduct. They were not willing to give up one of their own, so they began to threaten police and kill civilians. The revised anti-gang laws of 2008 gave prosecutors the ability to hold bosses responsible for foot soldiers actions. The society is no longer afraid to attack the Yakuza - the most powerful gang boss Kiyoshi Takayama was arrested recently, even their old bedfellows the construction industry are now beginning to shun them. It seems the Yakuza may not have long left.

The behemoth Zaibatsu faced a similar situation when confronted with anti -monopoly laws in 1946 but were saved by America’s need for an anti communist power in Asia. They were however significantly reduced in power, loosing the vertical chain of command and morphing into the horizontally structured Keiretsu.

The anti-monopoly laws did have the power to enforce criminal convictions on those who sought to flout them but no such penalties were seen until cases involving oil cartels of the 1970s when in 1984, 14 top executives of 12 oil companies were sentenced to prison.

Surcharges were then introduced as a more potent deterrent than criminal conviction. As a result there were no criminal convictions for 17 years. Surcharges proved ineffective as they were too low to offer any serious deterrent. In 2005, the Anti Monopoly Act and Corporate Compliance were amended, which has ensured a decrease in rigging.

Many scholars have viewed Japan as a non-litigious nation but like all nations, the Japanese have many legal issues in their society: civil disputes, criminal actions and corporate contentions. The UK has benefited for a long enshrined constitution and a legal system that was born of it and that has many years to develop. However we should not be quick to condemn the Japanese. In last October we saw a number of people appealing against terrorism convictions that have been alleged to be based upon forced confessions after police beating during the troubles in Northern Ireland just two decades ago. Monopolies are also an issue in our society - News Corp’s recent BSkyB takeover bid has brought this to light. Whilst both are in nowhere near as systemic as it has been suggested, in Japan they do exist.

Columbian, Chinese, Italian, Russian, Jamaican and home-grown organised crime is rife throughout the UK. Brian Freemantle a journalist and author who has recently investigated this, commented that ‘No-one is properly addressing organised crime, which is why it is winning’. In November, Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly commented that he wanted to review the justice system, making reforms that would encourage people to seek alternatives to court, such as mediation.

So what can we take from all this? As with most things, a lot can be learnt from and a lot could be taught to this amazing nation.

Want to Read More? All the following are available from London Met’s Library...

• Hiroshi Oda, Japanese Law, 2nd Ed Oxford University Press, 2001 • Meryll Dean, Japanese Legal System, 2nd Ed, Cavendish, 2002 • Mark D. West, Law in Everyday Japan, The University of Chicago Press, 2005

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FEATURES

A Critique on the Law on Corporate Liability Jade Fitzgerald, 2nd year LLB Student examines the flaws in Corporate liability and why the

new Act brought more questions than answers

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y the time of the passing of the Corpo rate Manslaughter & Corporate Homicide Act 2007, it had been widely accepted that the current law regarding the potential liability of corporate entities was in dire need of reform due to a number of factors. This will highlight the shortcomings in the common law precursor to the Act, as well as identify and evaluate those brought into focus since the enactment of the new legislation.

Common Law Flaws An analysis of the common law on corporate liability seems to show that the process of achieving a secure conviction in respect of public organisations had become increasingly difficult in view of the principles in place. This could be observed in the case of strict liability offences where mens rea needs to be proved in the form of knowledge or willfulness. As a result, convictions for direct liability were even further frustrated by the fact that recklessness, gross negligence or intention were almost impossible to prove. Additionally, given the exceptions to vicarious liability, namely the attribution and delegation principles, it became evident from subsequent case laws such as Vane v Yiannopoullos [1965] AC 486 HOL and National Rivers Authority v Alfred McAlpine Homes East Ltd [1994] 4 All ER 286, that corporations were still managing to ‘slip the net’.

However, the most flawed of principles was highlighted in the Doctrine of Identification, in view of direct liability, which rested on liability being established against an individual. This way, no matter how serious the degree of recklessness committed by management, if a prosecution had not been launched against a senior manager or director; a conviction against the corporation is not possible. On this basis, it is conceivable to argue that smaller companies with a limited number of ‘directing minds’ are ever liable due to the smallranging scope of members, therefore being much easier to convict. Consequently, the larger the entity, the more difficult the task of identifying the guilty becomes.

Nevertheless the identification doctrine has been affirmed in two leading authorities on corporate manslaughter: P&O European Ferries (Dover) Ltd and the Attorney-General’s Reference (No. 2 of 1999) where it was established whether the actus reus and mens rea of an offence could be placed on a company itself. Lord Hoffman in Meridian Global Funds Management Asia Ltd v Securities Commission knowledge and other mens rea could equally be attributed to a corporation. In the Attorney-General’s case the question was posed: can a defendant be properly convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence in the absence of evidence as to the state of mind? It was held that yes this was possible as the emphasis for manslaughter was not so much specifically on the defendant’s state of mind but on whether the conduct went far below the expected standard of care. .

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Further in the Attorney-General’s reference, a major fault may be observed as the previous common law placed the focus more on individual fault than systematic fault which prevented members from being at the few convictions using the identification doctrine, the faults in the law had been fully exposed. Consequently, after ten years of political pressure the government finally conceded to the Corporate Homicide and Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007 as a direct response to the flaws posed by the common law observed particularly in the abortive identification doctrine.

Corporate Killing on a New Scale Under the new legislation, section 1 sets out the offence in its reformed state and a corporation will now be guilty of corporate manslaughter if the way in which its activities are managed or organised [a] causes a person’s death and [b] amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.

It has been argued that there are substantial elements of the Act that have failed to combat the inefficiencies of the old law namely: ‘qualifying organisation’, causation and of course, what exactly constitutes ‘senior management’. The first issue is the scope of the potential defendants exposed to the offence. The Act includes government-run organisations such as the police and the NHS that are primarily considered non-profit bodies, which is contradictory, as one of the main aims of the legislation to penalise companies who allowed the need for profit to overtake the principle of health and safety at work. Secondly, the requirement of causation raises concerns as section 1 also states that the prosecution must prove that the organisation was the cause of the victim’s death, and the general interpretation has been that the conduct of the organisation need not be the only cause as long as it was a cause. However, this point proves to be substantially different from the Law Commission’s proposals that the victim’s death need only be a cause and not the immediate cause.

Consequently, this emphasises the fact that the Act will need to adopt the extensive stance of the Commission if it is to work effectively, which at the moment it seems to be achieving the contrary and restricting its scope.

Additionally, the creation of the need for senior management’s acts to be a substantial element in the breach referred to in section 1 raises the point that the Act may be reproducing the problems of concentrating on individuals rather than on overall fault. On the one hand, it would appear that the aggregation principle used, referring to senior management and those who play significant roles in the making of decisions about how whole or substantial part of activities are managed, does seem to broaden the limits of the offence in comparison to before the passing of the Act, which included ‘the directing mind or will of a company’.

However it is still doubtful how far the Act will reach, for example in whether the acts or omissions of employees can be taken in tandem with those of the senior management. Further in analysis of the sections of this piece of legislation, it seems the vast amount of requirements in order for a corporation to be deemed guilty makes achieving a conviction still very difficult. As R. Taylor claims in ‘The Corporate manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007’ [2008] Crim LR 589: ‘Whether liability arises involves working through numerous issues...Cynical commentators might regard the Act as succeeding primarily in making a symbolic statement about corporate responsibility, which it will struggle to fulfil in practice’. This hindrance can be readily observed in section 1 regarding the question of a relevant duty as well as subsection 3-7 about the severity of the breach.

Ultimately, it seems that the path to conviction is somewhat distorted by the technicalities in relation to each question under the Act.

‘Whether liability arises involves working through numerous issues...Cynical commentators might regard the Act as succeeding primarily in making a symbolic statement about corporate responsibility, which it will struggle to fulfil in practice’

Dictum April 2011

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FEATURES

Withdrawal of LPC funding threatens access to legal profession

by Kristoffer James M. Canlas, Chief Editor

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midst the cuts on all sectors of the society, it seems that banks have been very cautious in lending money to students. It came after the announcement of the National Westminster Bank (NatWest) that they will not be offering tailored loans for students who will be studying their Legal Practice Course (LPC), Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) and Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) in conjunction with The College of Law and BPP Law School.

NatWest has previously offered competitive loans of up to £25,000 at a considerably low interest rate. The Royal Bank of Scotland has also announced that they are cancelling their loan products to students.

However, Barclays which is offering Professional and Career Development loans of up to £10,000 and other cooperative banks still have their doors remained open to students who may need financial assistance to study.

Speaking to Dictum, Husnara Begum, editor of Lawyer 2B said: “The global financial crisis is the main reasons why banks have become more reluctant to offer loans to both small businesses and consumers such as first time home buyers.”

The latest annual statistical report from the Law Society shows that the number of registered training contracts offered in the 12-month period ending 31 July 2010 was 4,874, a decrease of 16.1% on the previous year’s figure of 5,809. The annual number of training contracts has now fallen 23% from a 2007- 2008 peak of 6,303.

When asked about whether the decision behind the cancellation of the loans is the ever-increasing number of students embarking in the law profession, Begum said: “The banks are definitely less willing to lend money to people who they know won’t be able to afford the repayments.” She then continued: “There may be concern that some students are not being realistic about their future career prospects after finishing law school.

The huge question mark is whether or not they will be in a position to repay back the loan. Obviously, without a training contract this is more unlikely.”

Students have also expressed their dismay. Reema Khular, third year LLB law student said, “I don’t think it’s fair as people from poorer backgrounds are going to struggle and more likely will resort to jobs that they do not particularly enjoy in order to save money for the LPC. Everything is becoming so expensive and I will be not surprised that only the rich will be doing degrees like law or medicine and this is the result of Labour’s over spending and Conservatives only thinking about the rich.”

In a capitalist market, one would expect to see an excess of supply over demand, but we are getting to the point where law schools are simply pouring out too many

students - and it is a feature of the recent recession that law becomes popular because there is an underlying wrong notion that it is seen as a safe career option in a difficult jobs market.

Another bad news was recently announced by Mark Blakely, Director of the Legal Practice Course at London Metropolitan University that London Met graduates, who are starting their LPC or GDL in 2012, will not benefit from the 50% discount if graduated with a first class degree, 20% with an upper second class and 10% for lower second class which is a current incentive offered to students who will be enrolling to the law school.

All is not dark and gloomy though, it was recently reported by the Lawyer 2B that BPP Law school has unveiled more flexible payment methods to help students spread the costs of their Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) fees.

Starting from September 2011, full-time LPC and GDL students will be eligible to spread their interest free payments over four annual instalments instead of two.

“The global financial crisis is the main reasons why banks have become more reluctant to offer loans to both small businesses and consumers such as first time home buyers.”- Husnara Begum, Lawyer 2B Editor

Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Australia’s got it, what about us?

Anita Da Ros, International Relations and Politics student

On the 5th May 2011 Britain will be called to vote in a Referendum on the very delicate issue of the electoral system. The new system suggested by Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat’s leader is called the Alternative Vote (AV). Only three countries in the world have this type of system; Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, and the last two are considering changing it. It is really important to understand how the Alternative Vote works, its advantages and disadvantages and also which major changes it will impose. Hopefully this article will help to better understand the subject.

The main supporter of the “Yes to AV” campaign is the Green Party, which defined the Alternative Vote as the new “appetite for change” and argues that the system will “keep pressure on the government”. The defining point of the “YES to AV” campaign seems to be that AV would mean fewer safe seats and fewer ‘jobs for life’, so MPs would have to work harder to keep their constituents happy. The current system is called First Past the Post which is one member, one vote. Meaning that when a person votes, they simply need to put an ‘X’ next to the name of the candidate.

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During the 2010 UK General Election two thirds of the candidates won with more than 50% of the vote therefore what kind of “reform” would AV really make?

The second or third candidates will automatically be excluded anyway. Taking this into consideration, it can be said that the “First Past the Post” election system, where the person who gets the majority of votes win, assures Britain has the government they requested.

Candidates elected might not be reliable for the posiIn 1931, Winston Churchill defined the AV as “the most worthless votes given for the most worthless can- tion that has been given but this means that the candidates”. The major criticism of the AV system is that it didates need to be changed not the electoral system. will be expensive to implement estimated at £90Million The introduction of the AV system will force Members of Parliament to get together to win the votes, with a because the counting of votes will have to be done by machine. Another disadvantage is that the vote of small strong possibility of resulting in coalitions and unfortunately as demonstrated a coalition between different parties will probably be the first eliminated. With this parties does not always assure the best for the country. complicated system people have the possibility to vote In coalitions many differences and opinions will remain for as many nominees as they like which may divide evident which can lead to uncertainly, confusion and the electorate. Whereas the ease and simplicity of the criticisms. Both arguments have shown the advantages current system has been adopted by many countries and disadvantages that this system could have so now around the world such as India and Canada. fellow voters go and exercise your democratic right.

Choose where you would like to stand and do what you think is fair!

AV allows people to correspond the candidates name with numbers from 1 to as many as the voters like or until the person gets bored of ranking candidates. If a candidate does not reach more than 50% of the votes, the votes assigned to the candidate that came last will be automatically redistributed, this will continue until one candidate reaches 50%.

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IN THE NEWS

Welsh people vote to give more power to their Assembly Gabriele Ruberto, News Editor

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elsh voters have overwhelmingly voted “Yes” in a referendum to give their National Assembly direct law-making powers. 21 out of 22 districts agreed to give the assembly more powers to legislate in specific areas, in a change that would bring Wales closer to the other two countries enjoying delegated powers, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The referendum asked Welsh voters whether they wanted their Assembly to be able to make laws in twenty subject areas — including education, agriculture, health, housing, social welfare, the environment and local government — without needing agreement from the UK Parliament. In 21 of the 22 unitary authorities, the vote was “Yes”, meaning that 61% of the voters were in favour of giving strengthened powers to the Welsh Assembly. The only area in which the majority of the voters supported the “No” was Monmouthshire. Turnout was lower than expected with a rather poor 35.16%. Politicians from all parties welcomed the positive result. First Minister Carwyn Jones expressed delight and said that, after the referendum, Welsh politicians “can now do things, instead of talking about doing things”.

However, this would also carry enhanced responsibilities for his government, as this result means that “for us politicians we have a duty to show those people who voted for us that we can use the powers we have for the benefit of the people”. Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty William welcomed the result, but accused the Welsh government of having presided over “Wales becoming the poorest part of the UK”. Both Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband congratulated the victory of the “Yes”. However, concern has been expressed about the low turnout. Conservative Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan expressed concern over low turnout, but she called it “a good day for Wales”. The result of the referendum allows the Welsh Assembly to progress to part four of the Government of Wales Act 2006 — the act that outlined the extent of the Assembly’s powers. Before the referendum, Welsh laws could be passed by the Assembly, but only after law-making powers had been obtained from Westminster. Powers were transferred from the UK Parliament to the Welsh Assembly on a case-by-case basis, using a system called legislative competence orders (LCO).

The “Yes” victory in the referendum means that LCOs can be considered scrapped and that the Assembly can pass primary legislation in the twenty policy fields indicated by Schedule 5 of the 2006 Act, without the need to seek parliament’s consent. At the same time, all the previously non-devolved areas remain non-devolved, and are the responsibility of the UK Parliament and Government. Therefore, power to legislate in matters such as fiscal, economic and monetary policy, defence and foreign affairs, criminal and civil justice is retained at a national level, as those fields are considered to be best undertaken at UK level.

The referendum does not award the Welsh Assembly the same amount of powers enjoyed by the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Parliament has a limited financial power under Part IV of the Scotland Act 1998, which empowers it to vary the rate of income tax in Scotland by up to 3p in the pound through a Scottish income tax.

The Welsh Assembly, as said above, does not enjoy any power with regard to fiscal policy. Wales has also been and remains significantly more integrated to England compared to Scotland, in particular for purposes of law and administration. Wales and England share the same judiciary system; in fact English law has been the legal system of England and Wales since 1536. On the contrary, Scotland has a different legal system, with different courts, although civil appeals could be taken to the Supreme Court of the UK. Overall, the referendum could be considered a significant step forward for Welsh devolution, as the law-making tie to Westminster has been loosened.

The ECJ ruling on gender hits insurance and pensions cost Augustas Jankauskas, LLB Student

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he European Court of Justice (the ECJ) ruled that from December 21st 2012 insurers and annuity providers will no longer be able to charge men and women a different amount for insurance premiums and annuities.

Originally the action was brought before the Belgian Constitutional Court by Belgian consumer group the Association Belge des Consommateurs Test-Achats ASBL and two individuals. The Belgian court requested that the ECJ assessed the rules governing sexual equality. The ECJ decided that: “Taking the gender of the insured individual into account as a risk factor in insurance contracts constitutes discrimination.”

Although the decision may look wise and welcoming as it tackles discrimination it received a greater amount of criticism rather than support. The ruling will have an effect on two types of insurance. The first one is car insurance, according to the statistics men drive more than women and have more accidents, as a result men are at a higher risk and have to pay higher premiums.

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This is the reason why insurers have always used gender as a factor when calculating premiums for car insurance. However, from December 21st 2012, because of the new anti-discrimination legislation, insurers will no longer be able to use gender as a risk factor. Insurers will have to take into account other factors such as age, experience and the amount a driver actually drives.

Insurance experts say that taking into account other factors means that men could see around a 10-20% fall in their premiums.

Unfortunately this is bad news for women; they may see an increase of up to 30% in their premiums or even a 50% increase for young women.

The second type of insurance which will be affected is life insurance. Statistically women have longer life expectancy than men therefore they pay lower premiums.

The fact that insurers will no longer be able to take gender into consideration means that life insurance rates for women could rise by as much as 20% while men could see a 10% fall in cost The ruling will also hit annuity rates as insurers use gender as a factor for calculating annuity rates and because women statistically live longer – men generally receive higher annuity rates. The ruling plays its part here as well and as a result men could receive lower rates in the future while women could see a rise. However, the ECJ ruling will hit the pensions market the least and it will receive the smallest changes, say the insurance experts.

The ECJ ruling has raised a few more issues regarding the insurance market. There are concerns that other factors such as disability or age could be the next step by the ECJ towards more developed anti-discrimination legislation. Nevertheless a ruling on age would make a much larger impact on consumers and the insurance industry rather than the current ruling on gender.

Although, it is not clear how the insurance market will really change, it would be naive to expect that both men and women would win from this ruling. The simple reason for this is that insurers will try to equalise the cost for men and women rather than lose out by reducing the costs for both genders. However, the European Court of Justice makes it clear that consumers will no longer have to pay more simply because they happened to be a male or a female.

Dictum April 2011

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IN THE NEWS

You have the ‘right to be forgotten’!

David Burton

H

ave you ever wished you could erase that drunken picture of you running down Oxford Street in your underwear or deleting that comment you made about your boss after a bad day at work on Facebook or any other social networking site? Well you may be in luck as the European Union (EU) is set to enshrine ‘the right to be forgotten from online activity’; this ensures that users of social networking sites could have all their personal data removed permanently from all the companies’ servers.

The ability to have personal information completely removed from online sources allows the user to present a respectable online persona which is becoming increasingly more important with reports showing that employers are using online resources to perform background checks on current and potential employees.

The EU justice commissioner, Viviane Reding suggested the proposal in a statement to the European Parliament and went further to point out that the new right must be complied with by not only European based sites but US-based social network

companies such as Facebook who must also comply with EU rules. This statement intends to force social networking sites to give control over data back to the user by making the standards of data privacy high.

Ms Reding went on to say that “the burden of proof should be on data controllers as they must prove that they need to keep the data, rather than individuals having to prove that their data is not necessary.”

The proposed right to be forgotten will give National privacy watchdogs such as the UK’s Information Commissioner the powers to investigate and launch legal proceedings against companies with services that target consumers within the EU, resulting with sites facing sanctions that are found not to comply with the new legislation. The legislation will not only affect social networking sites but also organisations like Google who in recent times have been criticised by privacy advocates around the world for its collection of Wi-Fi data whilst it was mapping the roads for its Street View service.

The proposed legislation will radically rewrite current 1995 EU data protection laws which have been pointed out by the Justice Commissioner as a long overdue reform “We

also need to bring our laws up to date with the challengers raised by new technologies and globalisation.” The proposed legislation outlines four fundamental principles including the right to be forgotten, greater transparency, default privacy settings and protection regardless of data locations.

The ideology behind the “right to be forgotten” is not a new one within EU member states as the UK’s communications minister Ed Vaizey has voiced such concerns about Google’s privacy policy and Spain’s national privacy regulator has ordered Google to delete out of date and inaccurate information, all of which highlights the need for reform of data protection laws even if to simply catch up with an ever changing and fast paced market. The UK’s current Data Protection Act 1998 merely protects personal information and copyright law only provides for the removal of copied information and images displayed on websites therefore current legislation does not provide an individual with the right to have their identity totally and permanently removed. However individuals have won some amount of identity protection against media organisations under Article 8 Human Rights Act 1998 providing everyone with the right to “respect for private and family life”.

The proposed legislation makes the EU the first jurisdiction in the world to provide a true “right to be forgotten” by giving the EU citizen the power to delete their data once and for all, which is clearly an unprecedented step for lawmakers to be finally confronting the digital age with confidence.

Libya: The Hypocrisy and Legitimacy of UN Resolution Ayodeji Oladimeji, third year LLB student

A

ll hurricanes begin as a light harmless gust of wind as it began with the seemingly resistance free deposing of the Tunisian leadership, followed closely in its heels by that of the Egyptian autocracy and then to Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and the Royal kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The one push for change that has refused to evolve in a subtle but resolute tone has been that in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. United Nations Charter Chapter VII (UN) provides the legal framework for measures to be recommended and actions to be taken in line with the obligations under its relevant articles and any decision taken under it is legally binding on members to the agreement.

The first global response to the Libyan crisis had been with the UN’s issue of Resolution 1970(2011) which had remained largely unheeded by the Libyan regime. To follow on the heels of that resolution was UN Resolution 1973(2011) which had at its core an implementation of a ‘no-fly zone’ over Libyan airspace. Both resolutions are covered by UN Charter Chapter VII article 39-42. This Resolution is necessary in light of the carnage Gadaffi’s army has been unleashing

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in its own towns and cities which has heralded the birth of revolution previously unheard of in this Arab enclave. International news has been reporting both within and outside of Libyan territory and has been warning of Gadaffi’s vow to cleanse the rebellion with the use of heavy artillery and aerial ballistic weapons.

Resolution 1973(2011) was passed by the ad hoc committee of the Security Council with 10 in favour to none against, with 5 abstentions recorded from Brazil, China, Germany, India and Russia. This guaranteed the legal basis to intervene in the crisis on humanitarian grounds, to protect and safeguard the lives and property of innocent Libyan civilians whilst also safeguarding the smooth passage of foreign nationals being evacuated out of the troubled country.

Unconvincing as the votes for the resolution may seem to appear in terms of the abstentions by key players in the upkeep of global international peace and economic stability.

One may be just right to say it lacks the necessary legal ‘oomph’ to have an overwhelming appeal of legitimacy, regardless of the backing given by the African Union and the Organisation of Islamic Conference.

Although each nation to abstain made clear their different national stance on the murderous and inhumane abuse being perpetrated by the Libyan regime. Their basis summarised, favours a different approach to an objective of immediate ceasefire that wouldn’t snowball into any undesired consequences leaving an already unstable region in a state of dastardly disequilibrium.

Worthy of note is the opinion of both China and Russia that the UN Security Council had not fully explored options available to it in trying to attain a peaceful end to the conflict before adopting a military one. Also noting that questions remained unanswered as to how the resolution would be enforced, and by whom and what the limits of engagement would be.

Resolution 1973(2011) has paved way for the first round of heavy shelling of prime targets in the Libyan capital by the allied forces, with its objective to weaken the regime’s air defences and air force capabilities. It remains an alliance of the usual suspects and a legion of the infamous, whose suppressed peoples are drumming for change. One thing however remains clear, the resolution strongly denounced any form of occupation by any military force in whatever form.

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IN THE NEWS

The UK’s first Judicial Institute Kamila Jafri, Features Editor

T

he judicial system is of key significance to the legal decision-making in the UK; the wide range of judicial bodies have adjudicatory powers which in effect have a profound impact on the lives of all citizens as well as all areas, such as the commercial sector. Recent developments such as the transfer of judicial authority from the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords to the Supreme Court; as well as the establishment of an independent Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) have further emphasised the impact and importance of the judiciary in this country. Regardless of such changes, the UK’s judiciary has never been subjected to broad academic analysis through research and teaching, even though it is common practice in other countries, such as in United States and Dubai.

On the 16th of November 2010, the University College of London (UCL) Faculty of Laws established the United Kingdom’s first ever Judicial Institute. It is the only establishment of its kind in the UK which specifically provides law students with an insight into the judicial system and as to how it works; hence generating a better and more comprehensive understanding of the system.

The Institute was established with a panel debate on ‘The Future of Judging', chaired by the BBC's Law in Action presenter Joshua Rozenberg. The speakers included Rt Hon Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Master of the Rolls, and Professor Richard Susskind OBE, IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice; also present were the Co-Directors of the Judicial Institute, Professor Dame Hazel Genn, Dean of UCL Laws and Professor Cheryl Thomas.

Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury stated that: “The launch of UCL’s Judicial Institute is an important development. It is important because the judiciary is changing in a number of ways. It is now appointed, for instance, through an open process. More solicitors are joining the judiciary. It is becoming more diverse generally. Its role is changing. Judges are no longer simply passive arbiters, as was the case in the past.

They also have a clear case management role, which will soon no doubt extend to cost management. Given the important constitutional role played by our judiciary, this calls for serious study.”

Commenting on the launch, UCL Professor of Judicial Studies Cheryl Thomas, further stated: “Today, there is not a single important social issue in our society that judges at some point aren’t asked to adjudicate. Yet in the UK the academic community has not really addressed the reality of judging or served the judiciary well with robust empirical research on the judicial process.

The UCL judicial institute has been established to rectify this and create a home for world-leading scholarship on the judiciary.”

According to the UCL website, the Institute is devoted to the continuing study of the process of the appointment of judges, how they reach decisions, the way the courts operates, and the relationship between the judiciary, other social institutions and other branches of government. The Judicial Institute aims to increase understanding this vital area of legal practice, by way of teaching, research and public policy engagement.

For more information, visit the UCL Judicial Institute website at: www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/ judicial-institute/index.html

Join the official London Metropolitan University Mansfield Law Society * Seminar Talks * Social Events * Annual Ball Visit http://www.mansfieldlawsociety.com

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IN THE NEWS/CASE DIGEST Contract Law

Spiller & Another (Appellants) v Joseph & Others (Respondents) [2010] UKSC 53 Ayodeji Oladimeji Abstract: The appellants had a contract with the respondents to front bookings on their behalf with a re-engagement clause incorporated into the terms for further bookings at the same venue in a 12-month period. Respondents breached the re-engagement clause by making a subsequent booking without recourse to the appellants.

A statement issued by the appellants on their website was deemed defamatory and libellous by the respondents.

The defences of ‘justification’ and ‘fair comment’ were argued by the appellants but were subsequently rejected by the High Court.

The Court of Appeal allowed the defence of ‘justification’, but struck out that of ‘fair comment’. Further appeal was made to the Supreme Court on a point of law originating from the decision advanced by Lord Nicholls in Tse Wai Chun Paul v Albert Cheng [2001] EMLR 777 on the defence of ‘fair comment’.

The Supreme Court formed the opinion that this point of the law was open to reform by the Law Commission also renaming the defence of ‘fair comment’ to ‘honest comment’. The court also held that appellants in their entirety were able to rely on the defence, ordering that it be made available to them.

Their Lordship’s reasoning was based on the admission that the respondents’ email arguably evidenced a contemptuous attitude to contractual obligations in general.

Criminal Law

R v Chaytor and others (Appellants) [2010] UKSC Augustas Jankauskas Abstract: The Appellants have been charged with false ac-

counting, contrary to section 17(1) (b) of the Theft Act 1968.

The charges relate to claims for parliamentary expenses, which includes mortgage payments, rent for accommodation, supply of stationary, etc.

The Fees Office received claim forms and made payments relating to the claims. By submitting these forms the Appellants declared that the costs were incurred exclusively for the purpose of performing duties as a Member of Parliament. The appellants argued that criminal proceedings would infringe parliamentary privilege. This claim is based on two points; first, Article 9 of the Bill of Rights 1689 and secondly the “exclusive cognisance” or “exclusive jurisdiction” of Parliament which refers to the right of each House to manage its own affairs internally without any

Environmental Law

Morge (FC) (Appellant) v Hampshire County Council (Respondent) [2010] EWCA Civ 608 David Burton

The Appellants appealed to the Supreme Court.

However, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals. The Court held that Article 9 or “exclusive jurisdiction” of the House of Commons does not pose any bar to the jurisdiction of the Crown Court to put the Appellants on trial. The main reasons for the judgement were that Article 9 is directed to protect freedom of speech and debate. Therefore, submission of expenses claims does not qualify for the protection of privilege.

EU Law

A-G Opinion: C-403/08, C-429/08 Football Association Premier League (FAPL) and Others Augustas Jankauskas

Abstract: Appeal on the obligation imposed on the

UK by the EU Habitats Directive to prohibit “deliberate disturbance” of certain species of bats as well as the scope of the obligation on planning authorities to satisfy the requirements of the Habitats Directive. Respondent granted planning permission for a three mile stretch of roadway. Environmental objections arouse when the planning application was objected to by Natural England to which the Respondent answered by submitting an Updated Bat Survey recording that no bat roosts were found, permission was thus granted. Appellant challenged the permission citing the impact on several species of European protected bats. Permission to appeal was granted on two grounds; first, the level of disturbance required to engage the prohibition in article 12(1)(b) Habitats Directive on “deliberate disturbance” of the bat species; secondly the scope of the obligation in 3(4) Conservation (Natural Habitats) Regulations 1994 on local authorities.

Supreme Court by majority dismisses the appeal finding on the first ground that certain considerations must govern the correct approach to article 12(1)(b) Habitats Directive – affording protection specifically to species not habitats. The Commission’s guidance documents explained account should be given to the rarity and conservation status of the species in question; secondly the court found that the Planning Committee had sufficient regard to regulation 3(4), Lord Kerr dissenting.

Abstract: The FAPL grants a right to broadcast

matches within their respective broadcasting areas.

Licensees are obliged to prevent broadcasts outside this area; this is done by requiring the licensee to encrypt its satellite signal and to transmit it in encrypted form to subscribers. However, subscribers can decrypt the signal using a decoder and a decoder card. The agreement also restricts the use of authorised decoder cards outside the area of each licensee.

Companies import decoder cards from abroad, in this case from Greece, into the UK and sell it to pubs at lower prices than the local broadcasters. These cards make it possible to show live Premier League football matches in UK pubs. The FAPL is attempting to stop this by means of a judicial ruling. In C-403/08 FAPL brought an action against the use of foreign decoder cards and in C-429/08 the action was brought against the landlady of a pub who used a Greek decoder card to show live football matches. Several questions were referred to the Court of Justice on the interpretation of EU law.

Advocate General gave an opinion on those questions and explained that prohibition of foreign decoder cards constitutes a serious damage on the freedom to provide services. Moreover, agreements relating to territorial exclusivity are contrary to EU law.

EU Law

Case C-137/09 Marc Michel Josemans v Bergemeester Van Maastricht (Dutch Coffee-Shop Case)(Appellant) [2010] UKSC 42 Ayodeji Oladimeji Abstract: A reference for preliminary ruling was made to

the Court of Justice on account of the decision by the Mayor of Maastricht to close the coffee-shop run by Mr Josemans based upon a report published that admission had been allowed to non-residents of the Netherlands which is contrary to a condition in the General Maastricht Municipal Regulation in an effort to combat drug tourism. Mr Josemans submitted that the legislation was unjustifiable as it breeds inequality amongst EU citizens. The Dutch authorities submitted that Mr Josemans claim was secondary and could have no bearing on the outcome of the main proceeding.

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The Court had a different view, ruling that the marketing of non-alcoholic beverages and food in coffee-shops must be viewed in the light of the freedom to provide services. The Court admitted that restriction is justified by the objective of combating drug tourism, and the accompanying public nuisance issue. Although this places a restriction on a freedom to provide services as it excludes a class of EU citizens. Their reasoning was informed by statistics and information provided by the authorities in justifying the restriction; reasoning that a coffee- shop proprietor cannot rely on the freedoms of movement or the principle of non-discrimination in the light of the anti-marketing of cannabis to ensure no further release of narcotic drugs into the EU via commercial channels.

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SPECIAL FEATURES MESOTHELIOMA – AN EXAMPLE OF THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES? Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe

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esothelioma is a disabling, painful and inevitably fatal disease of the lungs. Its commonest cause (possibly its only cause) is inhalation of asbestos fibres. It can even be caused by the inhalation of a single fibre. It is a latent disease which takes a minimum period of five years to manifest itself, and it may take as long as 20 or 30 years to do so.

The combination of these characteristics makes it particularly difficult for a claimant, who has contracted the disease through his employer’s failure to provide proper safeguards in the workplace, to establish liability and recover damages in a claim for negligence framed on established principles. The traditional approach required the claimant to establish duty, breach of duty, and damage caused by the breach. Proof of causation, on the balance of probabilities, was the stumbling-block.

The typical scenario (illustrated by the three appeals which the House of Lords heard together in Fairchild v Glenhaven Funeral Services Limited [2003] 1 AC 32) was that of a man who had spent his whole working life in shipbuilding or some other branch of heavy industry in which asbestos was regularly used. He might have worked for three or more different employers, all of whom were in breach of their duty of care in not protecting him from the risk of exposure to asbestos.

Many years later, Mesothelioma manifested itself in his lungs. On the evidence, it was very probable that his fatal illness was caused by a breach of duty on the part of at least one of his employers. But it was impossible to identify any one employer as liable, on the balance of probabilities.

In Fairchild the House of Lords boldly departed from traditional principles of causation in order to remedy what they perceived as obvious injustice. Lord Bingham justified the departure in these simple terms (para 33): “. . . such injustice as may be involved in imposing liability on a duty-breaking employer in these circumstances is heavily outweighed by the injustice of denying redress to a victim.”

Lord Bingham also (para 2) limited the decision to cases in which six cumulative conditions were satisfied. These included the requirement that there were at least two different employers, each of whom was guilty of a breach of duty to the claimant. It was however predictable that other situations and implications would have to be considered.

In Fairchild it was not disputed that if the defendant employer was liable at all, it was liable for the whole loss. The issue had been approached as “all or nothing”.

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But that was challenged in Barker v Corus (UK) Limited [2006] 2 AC 572, the second act in the Mesothelioma drama. In Barker the House of Lords held, but with Lord Rodger dissenting, that liability was only proportionate to the particular employer’s contribution to the increased risk, measured (in Lord Hoffmann’s view, para 48) primarily by the duration of exposure, but also taking into account the intensity of exposure and the type of asbestos concerned. So if a claimant had worked for three different employers, each for ten years, and with the same intensity of exposure to the same type of asbestos, but only one employer was before the court, that employer would be liable for one-third only of the damages.

The decision in Barker was reversed by Parliament with extraordinary rapidity. There was an outcry among trade unionists, who did not recognise the need for any restraint in developing the new judge-made rule in Fairchild. Section 3(1) of the Compensation Act 2006 in effect identified the Fairchild situation (but more widely, since it merely required “another exposure”, without indicating that it must have been in breach of a duty of care).

Subsection (2) then provides: “The responsible person shall be liable – (a) in respect of the whole of the damage caused to the victim by the disease (irrespective of whether the victim was also exposed to asbestos – (i) other than by the responsible person, whether or not in circumstances in which another person has liability in tort, or (ii) by the responsible person in circumstances in which he has no liability in tort), and (b) jointly and severally with any other responsible person.”

Section 3(2)(a)(ii) thus covers a situation in which the claimant had had a single employment, during part of which he had been exposed to asbestos in breach of duty, , and for part of which the exposure was not in breach of duty (because the risks were not generally recognised at that time).

The change made by the Compensation Act was the third act in the drama. The fourth act was the very recent decision of the Supreme Court in Sienkiewicz v Greif (UK) Limited [2011] 2 WLR 523, in which judgment was given on 9 March 2011. In that case Lord Phillips commented (para 58) on how the law has developed: “The 2006 Act, coupled with Fairchild, has draconian consequences for an employer who has been responsible for only a small proportion of the overall exposure of a claimant to asbestos dust, or his insurers, but it would be wrong to have regard to that fact when considering the issues raised by these appeals: Parliament has willed it so.”

In Sienkiewicz the Supreme Court considered two appeals on behalf of the estates of women who had died from Mesothelioma following relatively low-level exposure to asbestos. Mrs Costello worked in the office of a factory and only occasionally spent time in areas contaminated by asbestos. Mrs Willmore had had low-level exposure to asbestos while she was a secondary-school pupil: this came from broken asbestos ceiling tiles in the school building.

All of us, wherever we live or work, are subject to environmental exposure to low levels of asbestos. The trial judge found that the employer’s breach of duty towards Mrs Costello increased her level of risk from about 24 per million to about 28.5 per million – an increase of risk of 18%. He held that the claim failed even on the Fairchild test. In Mrs Willmore’s case the trial judge did not put his conclusion in percentage terms, but held that the school authority’s breach of duty had materially increased the risk of her contracting Mesotheliama, and that liability was established.

The Court of Appeal reversed the first decision and upheld the second decision.

The Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeal’s decision in both appeals. But the judgments show the Court’s recognition that the original decision in Fairchild – what I have called the first act – has had more far-reaching consequences than the House of Lords can have envisaged. There are some very interesting (and difficult) passages, especially in the speeches of Lord Phillips and Lord Rodger, dealing with risk and probability, and with the relevance of epidemiology and health statistics in the legal proof of causation (that issue was also considered in another difficult case, Gregg v Scott [2005] 2 AC 176).

Lord Brown expressed his conclusion very clearly (paras 184-186): “There is in my opinion simply no logical stopping place between the case of successive negligent employers dealt with in Fairchild itself (apparently circumscribed though that decision was) and the extreme (“draconian”) position now arrived at, well exemplified as it seems to me by the facts of these very appeals. If, because of the “rock of uncertainty”, the law is to compensate by reference to negligence which merely increases the risk of such injury as then develops, why should not that relaxation of the normal rule of causation apply equally when, as here, there is but one negligent employer (or negligent occupier) as when there are several? As Barker recognised, there can be no rational basis for confining the special rule within narrow bounds, whatever may have been contemplated by the House in Fairchild.

In short, the die was inexorably cast in Fairchild – although, as already suggested, it is doubtful if that was then recognised and it is noteworthy too that, even when in Barker it came to be recognised, it was then thought palatable only assuming that compensation was going to be assessed on an aliquot basis. Parliament, however, then chose – although, of course, only in Mesothelioma cases – to go the whole hog.

The result must surely be this. As I began by saying, Mesothelioma cases are in a category all their own . . . the unfortunate fact is, however, that the courts are faced with comparable rocks of uncertainty in a wide variety of other situations too and that to circumvent these rocks on a routine basis – let alone if to do so would open the way, as here, to compensation on a full liability basis – would turn our law upside down and dramatically increase the scope for what hitherto have been rejected as purely speculative compensation claims. Although, therefore, Mesothelioma claims must now be considered from the defendant’s standpoint a lost cause, there is to my mind a lesson to be learnt from losing it: the law tampers with the “but for” test of causation at its peril.”

It remains to be seen whether there is a fifth act of the drama yet to come, and in what direction this difficult area of the law may develop next.

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SPECIAL FEATURES

Prof. Peter McCaffery: A glimmer of hope and inspiration

by Kristoffer James M. Canlas, Chief Editor

A

s he inferred on his book, The HE Manager’s Handbook: Effective Leadership and Management in Universities and Colleges, being a manager is not an easy job. With the ever growing student numbers, cuts in the education sector, and high hopes for the pursuit of excellence in teaching and research, we couldn’t agree more. However, Professor Peter McCaffery believes that these changes, no matter how dire they may seem to be, are vital for the Higher Education sector to move forward, despite the Government’s attempt to cut the deficit.

As the newly appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the London Metropolitan University, Professor McCaffery has a wide range of experiences under his belt ranging from teaching and research in American Studies and History across levels from GCSE to PhD, and in a variety of institutions from further education colleges to U.S. Ivy League.

Professor McCaffery talks to Dictum about why he is excited to be working at London Met and what he really believes the aim of education should be.

How did you feel when you learned that you have been appointed as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the London Metropolitan University?

I felt terrific, excited and privileged! I have a very strong commitment to the mission and values of London Met in terms of widening participation and access, but not only that, also it’s about student achievement and commitment to excellence, as well as a contributing to equality and social justice - all of these are very important to me. In terms of research the university has a long-standing commitment and responsibility to social justice and a lot of my research has been in that area, so it chimes with my own value sets. I think it is an excellent opportunity and I am really delighted to be here.

You have over 25 years teaching and research experience in American Studies and History. Can you please tell us a bit more about the most interesting research you have conducted so far?

I started off as a historian. I was particularly interested in urban issues in the American city, and my initial research was on political corruption in that environment. I was studying the political machines over the last 200 years and how they have evolved, working on a case study of the city of Philadelphia itself. What is unusual about this is that I sought to challenge the established wisdom about machine politics. For example, in the late 19th century, there was mass immigration to the United States and there was a big moral panic and social crisis suggesting that immigrants were swamping the cities, and that they were strongly linked with crime and corruption. What I sought to show in my research was that immigrants were not the cause of corruption, in fact, they were the victims of corruption.

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I coined the phrase “Institutionalised Corruption” 20 years ago and that phrase has been used to apply to almost everything from racism to bullying. I maintain that “institutionalised” can only be an accurate description when two (and not just one) distinct qualities are present – a dominant style, value or culture alongside a centrally controlled structure and organisation. In essence I was really interested in challenging the received wisdom in city politics. As my career developed I became more interested in applying my research skills to HE itself, and particularly university leadership and management. And I was fortunate to secure a Winston Churchill Fellowship which enabled me to travel around the world and study how universities were responding to the new challenges confronting them.

You have implied on your book that being a manager is not easy. What in your opinion is the biggest challenge of London Met in this ever-changing HE sector?

Universities in Britain as a whole face a significant challenge because in England there is a change in the funding regime. For whatever reason, we have taken a leap in the dark - 80% of funding used to come via a grant from the funding council, but now it has effectively been placed in the hands of students, and these students will determine hereafter in 2012 what will happen. The big question is: Will students actually turn up?

Will they pay? That is the uncertainty the new funding regime brings. At London Met we have particular issues, that is compounded by having to repay back £36.5m to the HEFCE and that is a significant challenge, how to “square the circle”, having to make that kind of level of savings repayment without jeopardising the quality of student experience. Frontline services and student experience is paramount to us but equally we have to make savings nonetheless. For the last 30 years English universities, including London Met, have faced the issue of how you do more with less while maintaining quality. That is the conundrum and it’s been exacerbated here. However, I have already been very impressed on the level of commitment from students and staff in terms of their drive, work and energy. I feel that there is a great foundation for going forward. It is difficult, but we have the right ingredients.

How did you arrive to the decision to accept the job as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of London Met? I am an academic by background. I love teaching and my research. I could have stayed with that but I thought I wanted to do something different. Thereafter you end up seeking new experiences and as I am very interested in how you do more with less, I have sought to find out around the world how other modern universities answer that question

- not looking at Harvard, Yale or Oxford, but looking at modest universities with modest resources who still do great things. In my previous roles, I have experience of managing that contradiction. I have also had experience of making savings, while maintaining academic quality standards and student experience.

I think London Met is certainly a great challenge. Ultimately, leadership is about genuine empowerment and how you harness it.

Can you tell us what are your visions for London Met and how are you going to implement them?

To me, despite where we are in terms of funding, we can definitely be the best modern university in the capital. The vision really is around the new strategic plan “Transforming Lives, Meeting Needs and Building careers”. If you look at that, essentially it is about educational transformation. I would love to see London Met do exactly what it says on the tin. It should be about giving people the opportunity to realise their life aspirations and ambitions, and help them be what they want to be. I can see London Met being very successful in terms of the professions and all kinds of business and community engagements. We want students leave here feeling inspired, because to me the key to student experience is inspiration not consumerism. It is the tutors who inspire us that we look back on after graduation. When it comes to learning and teaching students, of course, have every right for the lecturers to be there, to provide timely feedback and for the course to be well organised and managed. Students, however, are not just consumers of learning, they are also producers of learning too - and that means they have a responsibility as well for their own learning. In essence, there is a mutual partnership between tutors and students and we want students to leave university having valued their experience, being inspired, and having gained a solid foundation for their careers.

Any word of advice to students?

I would say think of the long term and play the long game. Don’t be put off by the scaremongering about tuition fees, the cost of HE and the state of the job market. There are no up-front costs, short-term uncertainty will pass and there will be rising market demand for graduate level skills.

A degree is an investment for life – and remember you make a living by what you do. You make a life by what you give.

His personality and words mirror all the experiences he has had and his invaluable knowledge, burning passion, and commitment all echo the ideal leader an institution could have hope for to have. Truly, he is one of the most inspiring and dedicated people to have walked the halls of London Met, a sincere soul who will definitely bring hope and inspiration to students and to the university.

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SPECIAL FEATURES

Getting to know Mike Meehan Gordon Nixon, Associate Editor

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ike Meehan joined London Metropolitan in 2004 after leaving Liverpool John Moores University. He is Deputy Director of the CPE Graduate Diploma in Law programme and is subject leader for both UK Public Law and European Law. He also teaches European Law on the undergraduate LLB/BA programme.

I met Mike in the Atrium whilst he is between meetings and invigilating exams.

He very kindly gave up his free hour for the interview which I am more than grateful for.

I find this is very typical of many of the staff at London Met, they will gladly give up free time in order to socialise with students. I don’t mean to talk to students about their work but I mean genuinely socialise and it is something which I value.

Despite his accent, Mike was actually born in the United Kingdom, moving to Ireland shortly after birth. It was here where he grew up and in Galway where he attended university, studying a BA in French and Italian Language and Literature. During a gap year in his university studies, Mike moved to Milan to teach English to the Italian Police for 9 months. He laughs and explains that in the first class, in an attempt to intimidate him, all the police put their guns on the table and then described the look of horror on their faces as he picks one up and starts using it as a teaching aid (no one is meant to hold their guns except them). It was here that he got his taste for teaching and decided to study a joint English Law and French law degree and so moved to England to study at the University of Kent in Canterbury. During his 4 year course, he spent a year in Grenoble where he was able to focus on French Law and obtained a Diploma in French Law. So what was his favourite experience as a student? He explains how the 1990’s in Ireland were like the 1960’s in England.

The cultural scene exploded with new clubs and music groups establishing themselves all over. Being a student at that time meant he was immersed in this scene and he grins and says it was a great time to be a student.

Upon graduating from Kent in 1997, Mike moved back to France where he began teaching law and running lectures at the Law Faculty of the University of Bordeaux.

This was his first taste of teaching law.

The fact that he moved to Bordeaux also enabled him to indulge in his love of wine.

He used this experience as a spring pad, to enable him to get a position in the United Kingdom. He left Bordeaux in 1999 to read a Masters in law focusing on Public and European Law at King’s College London.

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It was 2 years later in 2000 that Mike got his first UK academic job teaching law at Liverpool John Moores University. Whilst there, Mike developed the Refugee and Asylum Law module and it enabled Mike to indulge in one of his passions in law and pass it on to others. He also bought his first place in Liverpool city centre. He has however, always considered himself a Londoner and so in 2004 he moved here with his wife to teach at London Met. But what drew him here?

He explains that education creates a fantastic opportunity to travel which I’m sure many people at London Met can agree with considering where we have all come from.

Why specifically London Met though? He explains that it was for 2 reasons. The first was simply because he wanted a job in London. The second is because he specifically wanted to teach at a new university and the merger of Guildhall and the University of North London created the perfect opportunity to be part of a new project.

Whilst teaching, Mike is currently completing a PhD part time from Birkbeck College, the focus of which is on Human Rights and the European Union. During his PhD, he has published an article on the Human Rights Commission in Northern Ireland and 2 articles on the European Charter on Fundamental Rights. He says that although his PhD is very important to him, he is a teacher first and a researcher second.

Although coming across as pro-Europe, Mike is in fact a Eurosceptic. He describes it as a fairly successful neo-liberal political project, but subject to hypocrisy and unfairness with dubious legal success. There are inequalities in the member states which are slow to be addressed and often seem ignored. We both agree that the definition of being European is also much wider than that of the free market which the Union seems to focus upon. However having said that, it is virtually impossible to describe ‘European’.

He describes it as a fairly successful neo-liberal political project, but subject to hypocrisy and unfairness with dubious legal success.

What books would he recommend to students? I’ve caught him off guard slightly but he suggests Letters to a Law Student and A Critical Introduction to Law. The first is a guide to studying law and the second is a non-black letter approach to law.

Finally, knowing what you know now, what would you change? He has no regrets about his past, but if he could, he would go back to Italy again and would study his PhD full time.

On that note I thank him as he dashes off to watch over students taking their exams and leaves me to finish my notes.

Mike is one of the most popular teachers in the law department and it is easy to see why. He is generous with his time, loves talking to students and has a great sense of humour. The university is certainly better off with him!

So what about behind the education?

Mike is a big Manchester United fan (for which he has my sympathies) and loves walking, travelling and reading. We talk about walking briefly and he tries to get out of London as often as possible to explore the countryside. He says that the travel links are one of the benefits of living in London and we must make use of them.

He is a collector of Penguin books and admits to having thousands of them in a library at home where he tries to get through one a week. He also collects vinyls and has actually been drinking with Bobby Gillespie (the lead singer of Primal Scream).

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SPECIAL FEATURES

Analysis of UN action in Libya in terms of relevant international law Carolin Albrecht, Hanna Appuhn, and Isabelle Trick with Dita Gill

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n March 2011, following the failure of the Libyan authorities to comply with its resolution 1970, the Security Council passed resolution 1973 authorising member states to “take all necessary measures…to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya” and deciding to “establish a ban on all flights in the airspace of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in order to help civilians”, excepting “flights whose sole purpose is humanitarian”.

Is the United Nations organisation allowed by law to interfere in the domestic affairs of member states?

As a general rule, the United Nations may not intervene in the domestic affairs of states.

This is expressly stated in article 2(7) of the UN Charter, the treaty which established the organisation and sets out the functions and powers of the main organs. There are now 192 states parties to the Charter.

Article 2(7) of the Charter further states that the rule of non-intervention does not limit the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII of the Charter, ie measures decided by the Security Council to maintain or restore international peace and security. The Security Council, the executive organ of the United Nations, holds primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security: Article 24.

What conditions must be established for the Security Council to use its enforcement powers?

First, article 41 contains non-military sanctions which the Security Council can impose to “give effect to its decisions”. These may include economic sanctions, trade embargos, the interruption of communications or the discontinuation of diplomatic relations.

Secondly, if the Security Council considers that Article 41 measures would be inadequate, or have proved to be inadequate, it can use its powers under Article 42, the most extensive powers entrusted to an international organisation to date. Article 42 empowers the Security Council to take “such action by air, sea or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security” which means, in the last resort, the use of coercive military force.

However, given that the United Nations does not have a standing military force at its command as was originally envisaged (see Article 43), the Security Council must rely on the international community, particularly the five permanent members, to make available armed forces, equipment and facilities on a voluntary basis for any action by force.

The UN’s powers under Chapter VII are potentially far-reaching and have worked very effectively on occasion, for example the expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait. More often the Security Council fails to act, from a lack of a unified political commitment.

What limits, if any, restrict the Security Council in the exercise of its powers to use force against a state?

Both the Security Council and member states must act in accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations stated Article 39 requires the Security Council to in articles 1 and 2 of the UN Charter: article determine whether any threat to the peace, 24(2) and article 1. The first-stated purpose is breach of the peace, or act of aggression to maintain international peace and security, exists. Situations considered so far have including taking effective collective measures ranged widely from illegal military action by for the prevention and removal of threats to the one state against another (Iraq invasion of peace. The third-stated purpose is to achieve Kuwait), to less obvious situations of internal international co-operation in solving internaarmed conflict (Democratic Republic of Congo, tional problems of a…humanitarian character.

Rwanda, Somalia). he first-stated principle is that of the soverThere are no clear guidelines the Security Council follows when deciding whether a situation warrants UN intervention, but past practice and resolutions indicate what the Security Council may take into consideration.

Once the Security Council has decided that a threat to the peace exists, it must make recommendations or decide what measures should be taken under Chapter VII. What powers does the UN have to use force under Chapter VII? Chapter VII can be regarded as the heart of the collective security system, for it deals with collective “Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace and Acts of Aggression”. It sets out the UN’s powers to maintain or restore international peace and security, acting through the Security Council.

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eign equality of member states. The third principle requires member states to settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security are not endangered. All parties to an armed conflict are bound by the international law of armed conflict which derives principally from the 1949 Geneva Conventions, now accepted as part of customary international law and universally binding. The meaning of “armed conflict”

is subject to uncertainty, but the definition given by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is widely accepted: “an armed conflict exists whenever there is a resort to armed force between States or protracted armed violence between governmental authorities and organised groups…”

[Prosecutor v Dusko Tadic 1995] It is permissible to cause civilian casualties or damage to civilian objects during an otherwise lawful attack on a military target, if not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the attack”. There is no mathematical formula for deciding what would be a proportionate level of collateral damage. Everything depends on the circumstances at the time and the operational context.

What concerns have been raised by states about the UN action in Libya? [DG] SC Resolution 1973 was not passed unanimously. Five members of the SC abstained from voting: China, Russia, India, Germany and Brazil, representing a significant proportion of the world. China has recently indicated its concern over the continuation of the conflict.

An article in the Chinese state newspaper notes that some cities have repeatedly changed hands, suggesting that neither Gadaffi nor the forces that oppose him are in a position to quickly overcome the other. Arranging a cease-fire and initiating political negotiations is the most practical and realistic option for addressing the humanitarian situation in Libya, it is suggested.

Turkish President Erdogan initially opposed any military involvement in Libya, but agreed to a non-combat role for Turkey in assisting the supply of humanitarian aid following SC Resolution 1973 and Arab League appeals. Erdogan has voiced concern that a long drawn-out conflict risks turning Libya into another Afghanistan or Iraq, with devastating consequences for the Libyan people and for those states taking part in the intervention. India issued a press release on March 20 stating its grave concern over the continuing violence, strife and deteriorating humanitarian situation, and its regret that air strikes were taking place. It emphasised that measures adopted should mitigate and not exacerbate an already difficult situation for the people of Libya. It calls on all parties to abjure the use or threat of force and to resolve their differences through peaceful means and dialogue in which the UN and regional organisations should play their role.

Can other states provide support to the rebels in Libya fighting Gadaffi’s forces without breaching international law?

The legality of supporting rebels in their fight against Colonel Gaddafi’s regime in Libya has been hotly debated since the French Foreign Minister announced on 29th March that France was prepared to consider arms deliveries to the rebels.

While the UK and USA sided with France, maintaining that the supply of arms to the rebels could be lawful, both Russia and NATO Secretary General Rasmussen expressed concern that this would fall outside the Security Council mandate.

SC Resolution 1973 provides for the protection of the civilian population and civilian populated areas, not for the support of the rebel movement, the argument goes.

US Secretary of State Clinton claimed that the prohibition on delivery of arms to Libya stipulated under the UN sanctions no longer applies, and that arms supplies could therefore be an option.

However, the crucial question under international law is whether support given by foreign states to rebels in a civil conflict constitutes a breach of the fundamental rule of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states. In the case of Nicaragua v USA the International Court of Justice held that “if one state, with a view to the coercion of another state, support and assists armed bands in that state whose purpose is to overthrow its government, that amounts to an intervention in its internal affairs, whatever the political objective of the state giving support.

Arguably Libya constitutes a different case, as through the enforcement of the no-fly zone, a form of intervention in the internal affairs of Libya is already taking place legitimised by Security Council Resolution 1973.

Nevertheless, the ICJ’s decision in Nicaragua v USA suggests that it would be a breach of international law if any state provides the Libyan rebels with any form of support without an explicit authorisation by the Security Council.

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SPECIAL FEATURES

Up close and personal with @Copyrightgirl Gordon Nixon

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Out of Twitter was born her blog. Emily uses both to freely answer questions from the public on copyright issues, and her blog enables more depth where required. She also uses it to discuss current developments in the area. Currently this is mostly taken up by the IP (Hargreaves) Review which she has been heavily involved with. This is an independent evidence based review which amongst other things looks at how copyright affects economic growth and innovation. The six month deadline for this is rapidly approaching so keep an eye on her blog!

mily Goodhand aka @Copyrightgirl is the Copyright and Compliance Officer at Reading University and was recently named as one of the top legal tweeters in England by Times Law. This would be an honour for anybody, however what makes Emily’s story so astounding is that not only is she not a lawyer, but she does not even have a legal background and yet her name has become famous within online legal and intellectual property circles. As well as her own Twitter account and blog, she also guest blogs for @ FOIman. Her knowledge and insightfulness comes from her sheer determination to succeed.

Emily has a degree in English and European Literature and received her Masters from Loughborough in Information and Library Management.

It was the legal aspect of this course where she examined privacy and transmission of information, which she credits as sparking her interest in copyright. Her first job as an assistant librarian at North Warwickshire & Hinckley College enabled her to indulge this. She was tasked with looking after software and e-learning resources. This involved collecting and examining a large amount of data on Terms & Conditions and licences, including looking at how software was managed within the College. With funding from the Colleges of Higher and Further Education (CoFHE), this project was expanded across the UK. After extensive research she used this background as a springboard I meet Emily at Reading Train Station and after a brief ‘is that you’ moment and nervous handshake we head off in search of coffee. We sit down in a quiet corner, and I have to start with the obvious question and ask her how it feels to have been named by The Times as a top legal tweeter.

She explains that she is flattered and honoured, even more so as she is not a lawyer. She uses Twitter as a way of networking and to keep up with developments in Copyright Law, as well as giving out free copyright advice.

She is particularly thankful to @DavidAllenGreen the renowned libel lawyer, who she seems in awe of. She says that Twitter is a fascinating medium for instantaneous conversation, debate and networking. Twitter is not an official part of her job but it is an extension as it is an invaluable resource for her and part of her continuing education.

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Emily Goodhand

Out of Twitter was born her blog. Emily uses both to freely answer questions from the public on copyright issues, and her blog enables more depth where required. She also uses it to discuss current developments in the area. Currently this is mostly taken up by the IP (Hargreaves) Review which she has been heavily involved with. This is an independent evidence based review which amongst other things looks at how copyright affects economic growth and innovation. The six month deadline for this is rapidly approaching so keep an eye on her blog!

After talking about the review and taking a sip of my now cold coffee, I cannot help but ask her for her opinion on the Digital Economy Act 2010.

At the mere mention of the Act, she shakes her head and places it in her hands (I can tell that we share the same opinion) - she still seems to be in disbelief that it was passed. Despite current cuts in education, she explains that it will cost the higher education sector at least £24 million every three years or so, to implement and monitor.

To her and to many others, it seems like nothing but an excuse for the likes of collecting societies and rights holders to make money. Hopefully the outcome of the judicial review which is due this month, combined with the findings from the IP review will force a change in the law.

She mentions that she is hopeful of change, but there have been so many reviews and hardly anything comes of them.

We talk briefly of the current push in Europe to look at the licensing of rights, with the aim being to make it easier for libraries to digitise collections. This is currently difficult to do legitimately and correctly, especially when it involves partner institutions in foreign countries.

As Emily quite rightly states, copyright is terrestrial but the internet is global. The aim of this review would be to harmonise copyright laws, particularly when the authors cannot be found, making it easier to digitise works without rights being infringed.

My coffee is now finished and I need to catch my train but there are still a few more questions to ask. Firstly, who does a top legal tweeter follow apart from @DavidAllenGreen?

She lists @legalbrat, @in_house_lawyer, and @ CopyrightLaw as essential for new cases and developments in law, but check her out on Twitter every Friday to see who she #FFs. Finally, what legal texts would she recommend?

Without hesitation, she lists Bently & Sherman’s Intellectual Property Law. She says it has been an invaluable resource not only for initial research but continuing development as well.

We walk back to the train station and say our goodbyes and I cannot help but feel cheerful. Emily freely shares her knowledge and information with anyone who asks for it - this is a rare quality in people. Her in depth insider knowledge is without doubt an invaluable resource for anyone studying or researching IP issues.

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SPECIAL FEATURES A closer look at London Met’s Legal Practice Course

by Kristoffer James M. Canlas, Chief Editor Mark Blakely, LPC Director talks about why London Met’s LPC is head over shoulders above other providers in the country, the importance of Work Based Learning and matters you need to consider in choosing a law school.

1. As the LPC Director, can you sum up our LPC course here at London Met? Sure! I have taught at London Met for 8 years after working as a solicitor in practice. The LPC team love teaching here because we are allowed to get on with teaching and caring for students. I have friends teaching elsewhere where their focus is maximising profits. Education is about learning and developing as a person. Making profits from students at the start of their careers is not what we’re about.

We want to make society better and our contribution is to train good lawyers to go out into the world to protect the vulnerable. I think we are a good mix of professionalism and friendliness.

2. How is the course tailored/structured compared to its rivals BPP and CoL? Although we have the same SRA grading as BPP, we concentrate on litigation; solving disputes between people. Other providers concentrate on business. From the late 1980’s we also delivered a business-heavy course. The world of training has changed and our students told us that they wanted more litigation skills rather than the depth of business procedure we were delivering. The London Met LPC is the place to go if you feel called to work in High Street practice and small to medium sized firms. We still cover all of the business law you need, however rather than working on the merger between BA and Iberia, our students learn to support smaller business and sole traders to help them grow.

3. The current face of the legal sector is full of turmoil, how do you think students who are taking the LPC or will take the course in the future will compete from students from other law schools?

It’s always been in turmoil! Look at the market: Numbers of students doing the LPC nationally are down. The same thing happened in the recession of 1990-92. Recessions frighten many students from training. Sarah Campling, my colleague, took the plunge and did her LPC at London Met during the last recession.

When the economy started to grow she was turning down firms due to the shortage of LPC students! She is now a judge. The market for traineeships has always corrected itself as the economy grows.

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4. What is the current number/percentage of students who have finished the course with Training contracts?

Good news. There is no such thing as training contracts any more. Its Work Based Learning.

I did my LPC in 1998 and did not get a training contract. They have been disappearing as the main way to qualify since the mid-1990’s.

Think about it; as an employer would you lock a new employee into a 2 year contract based on a 30 minute interview? Probably not. The sensible thing is to employ an LPC student as a paralegal. If they prove themselves, convert their role to trainee solicitor after several months. That’s what I did. As a low-paid paralegal I phoned the SRA myself and got the firm accredited to take on trainees. I qualified a month before everyone else in my year who had a training contract! Good students will always qualify as solicitors. Bad students will always struggle. You need to self-reflect on that one!

5. Do you have any partnerships with law firms?

Of course, all LPC providers do. Being a small provider we are in the happy position of having a surplus of mentoring places and can help place students for mentoring with a high degree of discernment. The problem is not lack of links but students’ lack of time. The LPC is demanding and too many students don’t take up mentoring opportunities while they study. Beware: no provider will get you a job. I get angry at some of the marketing material that suggests otherwise. Those providers are charging an extra £4,000 and blowing smoke up your chimney...

6. What do you think is the best thing about our LPC here at London Met that other law schools don’t have?

You will be taught in a classroom. Every year I get late applications from students who go elsewhere. They turn up and find out that most of the teaching is ‘online’. Basically, thanks for your £12,000 now go home and watch us online. If you are disciplined enough to sit in your bedroom and engage with a podcast on capital gains tax, fair play. I know I’m not. We want our students to be with us in small groups. That way we replicate practice more closely. We carry that realism all the way through to the assessments. They are open book; we want to train excellent solicitors, not provide memory tests.

7. What is your opinion regarding Natwest’s action to cancel its LPC loans?

Their parent RBS was the biggest casualty of the credit crunch in terms of taxpayer subsidy and I assume they are cutting back to their most profitable areas. More buoyant banks are business as usual. Check out www.direct.gov. uk and search for career development loans.

The government will advise you of the best source of funding.

8.

Any advice for students?

Firstly ask if you really want to be a solicitor.

Get a friend to challenge you; your strengths might lie elsewhere. If you want to do an LPC I would always recommend going to a university.

That way you know the course is designed around teaching and learning and not around the provider making money out of you. Westminster and City University teach more business and less litigation. We do the opposite.

Visit all providers and ask yourself the following: How much of my course will be delivered ‘online’? How many students are in each class?

Are the exams open or closed book? Would the provider be considerate if I have a personal problem during the course? How much of my fee appears to be going on teaching and how much is going on slick marketing and things I don’t really need? Expect to start work as a paralegal but aim to qualify as soon as possible by being proactive within your firm. Finally, most solicitors are not aggressive or confrontational. The TV image of sharp, tricky lawyers is very rare. Recruiting partners will look for students who are friendly, cooperative, honest, warm and humane. Don’t lose sight of that.

“We want our students to be with us in small groups. That way we replicate practice more closely.

We carry that realism all the way through to the assessments.”Mark Blakely

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CAREERS SECTION

A brief introduction to the Bar Fazl Buchari, Careers Editor

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any LLB students begin their legal education at university level without actually taking the time to think about what they would like to achieve with their degree.

Choosing between the BPTC (Bar Professional Training Course) and the LPC (legal practice course) can be crucial because it would depend on what exactly drives a particular pupil, what he or she enjoys doing most at professional level.

The route to becoming a Barrister is, amongst others like getting a minimum of a 2.2 law degree, by securing a place at the BPTC (formerly the Bar Vocational Course (BVC)) and a pupilage at one of the chambers in England.

But before embarking on a very exhausting and expensive path to becoming a barrister its perhaps best to take some time to really think whether this profession is actually something for you. Ask yourself whether you want to be a barrister above anything else in terms of your career.

Do compare the Legal Practice Course, the route to become a solicitor, with that of the BPTC. This article shall give you a few ideas about what you should expect and what you would be expected of in this highly demanding journey.

There is a wide range of other non-law jobs available as well as other legal jobs such as legal secretary, patent agent and legal executive etc incase you do not feel that either of the two legal routes is something for you.

Perhaps the best way to get a gist of how it feels like standing up in court to present your clients in front of a number of people that are as well educated as you, if not better, and know the law inside out must be a mini pupilage. This is simply work experience at a chambers which lasts for just about a week and as the name suggests it is like a very short pupilage. At a mini you will be required to prepare a written piece of work. A mini pupil will usually read the papers in one of the barristers cases in his/her room of follow the barrister to court and meetings. So that a mini pupil can meet a variety of people, he is often handed to a number of different barristers.

While at a mini, you can speak to barristers and ask them questions that you think require clarification and you can also ask other pupils.

Making yourself familiar with the chambers would be another good idea.

Unlike Solicitor firms, Chambers do not require a lengthy form to be filled in. A CV and cover letter should suffice in order to get a mini. You may want to include what stage you are at in terms of education.

Once you have decided that you want to go ahead with the BPTC you can consider some of the places where you can do your bar at, some of which are listed for you to have a look at: BPP Law School, London or Leeds – http://www.bpp.com/law/ Cardiff University, Cardiff – http://www.law.cf.ac.uk/cpls/bvc

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College of Law, London – http://www.college-of-law.co.uk Inns of Court Schoo of Law, London – http://www.city.ac.uk.icsl Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester – http://www.law.mmu.ac.uk/postgrad/bvc/ Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham – http:// www.ntu.ac.uk/nls/professional_courses/bvc University of West England, Bristol – http://bilp.uwe.ac.uk/bvc University of Northumbria, Newcastle – http:// northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/law/ The starting point is to think about where you want to be geographically – this may affect your decision because of living expenses and travelling costs.

Secondly, look at each institutions’ website and research the facilities they offer. For example do they have adequate IT provision and is their library well resourced.

Thirdly, attend one of their open days. The institutions all hold open days and this will usually be posted on their website. If this is not possible you can contact them directly to arrange a personal visit.

Fourthly, speak to people you know who have done the BVC or are about to start and ask them why they went or are going to the institution in question. It’s much better to go somewhere that has been recommended to you than one you know nothing about.

What is also important to remember however, is that everyone’s experiences differ and it is down to personal choice and experience at the end of the day.

A Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) will normally last a year long unless you decide to do it parttime in which case it stretches to two years. On average there is just about one available spot for a pupilage for every 400 BPTC students in England, therefore it is essential that you start looking for a place at the earliest possible if you decide on becoming a barrister.

A pupillage is something like an apprenticeship and is a requirement for anyone that wishes to practice as a barrister. It is much more challenging than the ‘mini’ discussed earlier. Whether as an employed or self employed barrister you will be required to spend a total of one year as a full time pupil under the tutelage and supervision of a junior barrister who has practiced for at least six years. The pupilage can be completed in either one go at one chamber or divided into two 6month periods at two chambers.

The chances of getting a pupilage after a BPTC are limited and due to a much higher passing out ratio against available pupillages the competition is fierce.

In order to improve your chances it would be best to focus on your degree as a first class honors or at least a higher 2nd class law degree will somewhat increase any likelihood of getting your foot into a chambers.

A very important resource is the Inn sponsorship scheme. This isn’t a financial sponsorship and what happens instead is that your Inn will allocate for you a barrister that will act as an adviser and mentor if you want one.

The best part about this sponsorship is that your mentor will be practicing in your desired area of law and is ready to give you advice.

There isn’t much of a choice between chambers and elsewhere for the purpose of pupillage but there are a few organizations like the GLS that not only employ barristers but also train them through their own pupillage scheme.

Most chambers offer a wide range of practice areas but you will still need to be fairly sure as to what area of law you’d want to practice in. If you show signs of being unsure that you want to take up their specialism (eg because the list of chambers you’ve applied to is all over the place, or your history of mini-pupillages shows no signs of recently focusing in on a specialism).

For an idea about an area of practice try visiting www.doctorjob.com/barrister and www. chambersandpartners/chambersstudent for excellent information. You will find profiles under different areas in the ‘essential information’ link of the page.

Many do have problems getting a pupillage and take a job after their BPTC finishes while they try to find a pupillage. It then becomes even more difficult because time to research properly becomes limited, to apply to chambers and to prepare for interviews. As if you weren’t under enough pressure, you should know that a BPTC is only valid for five yeas before the commencement of a pupillage.

However, if you really want to be a barrister and are barely getting any pupilage interviews then either you are applying to the wrong sets or, more likely, your CV and forms need improving. Many pupils have failed at first, got useful experience, and then been invited for a number of interviews and secured a pupillage at a great chambers.

Many chambers realise that pupillage applications include a lottery element and that your failure to secure pupilage first time round doesn’t mean you’re incompetent. Indeed, chambers rightly value perseverance.

The following are some of the ways to increase your chances. (i) Perhaps most importantly, get feedback from the chambers that didn’t interview you, or those that did but didn’t offer you a pupillage. Find out what was wrong with your application form or your interview. This will make it much easier to do better next time, and will give you something to focus on constructively. (ii) Regularly check the ‘newsflash’ section of the www.pupillages.com website. Some chambers offer extra pupillages, often at very short notice (eg when expected pupils have dropped out). (iii) Perfect your CV and application. They must suit particular chambers, so emphasise on your criminal-related experience if applying to criminal sets. You must make them believe that this is the area you want to do. Focus on your strengths if you did well in your degree then focus on that otherwise deal with it and don’t hide the facts.

Convince them that you are a stronger mooter or that your legal and other experience since university has matured you and sharpened your abilities (if its true!). >>>

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CAREERS SECTION >>> (iv) Get help. Speak to your INN student officer.

Get an Inn sponsor, if you don’t already have one, and talk to him or her. Speak to family friends who are barristers, if you are lucky enough to have any.

Do as many minis as possible. You need contacts! (v) Broaden your target. Look up geographical areas you haven’t previously considered, and reevaluate which areas of law you fancy. (vi) Get useful and impressive experience. Use your spare time constructively in advice clinics, representation units and similar organizations, or earn money while getting good experience in law-related job. You have to use your initiative and a little bit of drive. You will probably find that your Inn provides lots of opportunities, such as summer and other placements abroad, all of which are great experience and look good on your CV. As well as work opportunities, check out the legal recruitment agencies for jobs as paralegals (assistants in solicitors firms). (vii) If you can afford it, you really want to be a barrister and you just can’t get a pupillage, think about doing a Master’s degree. Normally I would recommend a degree only to people who want to do it for what it is, but it may be the solution for notionally upgrading a bad undergraduate degree result and is not uncommonly taken for this very reason.

Become an

There are hundreds of LLM programmes in the UK and abroad (http://www.llm-guide. com/). One of the newest options is the Northumbria LLM Advanced legal Practice, which is only available to those with a BPTC (or LPC) and is (because of its practical leaning) particularly relevant to those wishing to become barristers.

All may look very challenging and extremely demanding, but hey – we all know how cool it is to be a practicing barrister.

Go for it!

EU lawyer!

Saneeha Malik, 3rd Year LLB Student

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he market for candidates in the legal profession isn’t limited to a particular country. One very interesting area you can look forward to is the European Union. There is a vast amount of legal fields that you can practice in while working for one of the EU law departments ranging from Human Rights to Competition law, from Freedom of movement of persons or goods to Employment law. And not just that, you can even work for the European Parliament if you have what it takes to be an outstanding candidate.

One of the many benefits you get from working for the EU is that you communicate with professionals from all around the union which means you will learn about their cultures and perhaps even learn to speak one or more of their languages. Another feature is that you, as a British, German, French, Italian, Spanish or any other member citizen of the EU, can share your views and then present them jointly to the European Parliament for a well-deserved reform, if you believe we require one. You can represent your people, be their voice and make a difference.

The EU is as we all know a vast geographical area that many of us have hardly seen. This means that you have a huge choice of jobs to pick from the hundreds available. Although Human Rights is a key area of EU law, you should always remember that the basis on which the EU was first formed was Trade. Therefore it is always good to have at least some knowledge about EU trade and proposals the European Parliament has for the future. Being aware of affairs in business and finance will give you an

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You may want to have a look as to what the member state you are planning on applying to has to offer. My favourite aspects in Belgium would be the Spa-Franchorchamps GP and the delicious chocolate-topped waffles, yours might be something else. The languages spoken by locals there are Dutch, French and German.

See how you fit in!

Once you have decided about re-locating you will then have to decide what part of law interests you most or what you are good at and accordingly apply through the relevant websites. Alternatively you can also pay Brussels a visit before applying and perhaps look for a position whilst looking around the city.

I have added a few websites below that post vacancies on a regular basis, so you can have a look at them.

edge for whatever position you apply to.

Apart from English you would have to be fluent in at least two more European languages. If you already know French or German then you may perhaps want to start thinking of learning Italian or Spanish to build up your CV and make yourself a strong candidate.

A question you must ask yourself is whether you are willing to re-locate. Most legal jobs are based in Brussels, Belgium. A lovely place to be, but are you ready to move away from home if it isn’t Belgium?

http://www.legalweekjobs.com/jobs/ competition-eu/ http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/ Jo2_7008/ http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/ Jo2_7007/ These have a range of jobs and trainee positions available. You should try and get training from one of the EU departments even if you don’t want to work for them as it would look fabulous on your CV. Should you wish to stay you will soon realise that the EU legal department is a well paying employer and one of the reasons that Europe has grown to a very strong financial position now competing with the giants like the US and China. Good Luck.

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CAREERS SECTION

How to Ace Interviews?

The Do’s and Don’t’s Ian Clarke, 2nd Year LLB Student

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urely no one’s favourite part of the jobgetting process. And yet, having dragged yourself through law school sent off innumerable applications and finally having been offered an interview in the face of huge competition, you should be feeling pretty good about yourself. You have come a long way already. You are bright and positive and exactly the person they need. All you have to do is convince someone who knows absolutely nothing about you of that.

You have come far, but don’t rest on your laurels just yet. The thing about interviews is perhaps their odd combination of contradictions. You are in your best clothes, in an alien environment, yet must seem as if you dress like that and go there every day. You have rehearsed everything you are going to say but it has to seem as though you are thinking it for the first time. You have recently become the world expert on the organisation interviewing you and yet you want to talk about it as if it is incidental. You are modest and yet you have to up sell yourself for as long as the interview goes on. You made it through law school and you want this position. Relish the challenge.

Whoever you are interviewing with, the About Us section on their website is a good place to start. But, don’t forget that wasn’t written for prospective employees but prospective clients – people they want to make think they do everything and anything. You need to find out what they actually do. Dig a little deeper. What are their proudest achievements? Have they done anything of note in the last year, have they been in the news in the last week? Yesterday? Not knowing they were overseeing that merger yesterday is a surefire way of convincing your interviewer that you are not really interested. Find out who works there. Be ready to ask topical questions; if you can get your interviewer to share your enthusiasm you are doing well.

Of course, you have been invited in to demonstrate who you are and why you’d be useful to them. They are not interested in theory, so every question should be answered with a specific life story, preferably a work experience related one. Long before your interview, you should be anticipating the problem-solving questions they are going be asking you. Know what you learned at each job you have had, how you dealt with an issue, what the outcome was and what you learned; they are not interested in what your job description was. Have extra copies of your CV with you - go the extra mile and print it on good paper. Carry them in your smartest faux-leather folder with all of your carefully filed certificates, ready to produce them to underline every anecdote you employ.

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Everyone is nervous at an interview and it is doubtful whether seeming absolutely at ease would be a good thing. On the other hand, shaking and sweating is hardly endearing either. Nothing is as likely to cause you stress as getting lost or being late. Plan your journey, leave in plenty of time and arrive early. If there are other people waiting to be interviewed, talk to them; it will help you to relax. Remember that you are being judged from the moment that you walk into the building.

Everything has been leading up to this point.

Don’t be the loner in the corner staring manically at their notes or the one smoking outside and talking on their phone. You are a professional, you know how to behave and you get on well with people - that’s what you’re going to say in the interview, so you might as well start now. Turn off your phone, glance at a mirror before you go in and lose the extra bags, preferably before you set off.

As a professional one of your greatest skills is behaving appropriately. You may be well outside of your comfort zone, but don’t let them know that. Relax, but be alert. How does the place feel? How are the other people around the place behaving? Get a feel for the tone of the place. Being overly formal when the interviewer is trying to set an informal tone can be just as bad as if the roles were reversed. Consider the register of your interviewer’s language, his posture, their body language. Speak how he speaks, sit how he sits and remember to make eye contact, the more comfortable you can make your interviewer the more comfortable you will be.

What happened if you got off on the wrong foot? It does happen. This is your job, you are going be working in law, so demonstrate those famous people skills you mentioned in your cover letter. You need to win the interviewer over - he might be as uncomfortable as you. The only difference being that they have less interest in turning it around. This is an opportunity to impress. Take charge and put them at ease. Ask questions. Talk a little about why you are here.

Remember, however different you might feel to your interviewer, you have one thing in common – an interest in whatever it is this place does. Win them round and you are doing very well.

As the interview comes to a close, it is your chance to take the initiative one last time and leave a lasting impression. Ask when the position will be filled or if there will be another round of interviews. It is never about the money. You’d do it for the love. Even as you are leaving, remember you are still being watched, be as well-mannered on the way out as you were on the way in. It went well and you are feeling good. But it is not quite over. Go get a coffee, sit down and think about how things went. Make a note of the questions you have been asked so you can practise them for the next interview. Was there anything you could have done better? Don’t wait, write an email thanking them for the interview and reiterate your interest. If there was an agent, thank them too. It’s done. Smile.

Your interviewer wants to know about you, so don’t assume that he knows anything. Every question gives you the chance to tell them a little more about you. Keep it snappy though - keep talking for much more than a minute and you risk losing your interviewer’s interest. Be conscious of what you are saying: if you are waffling - stop.

If it seems to be going well, don’t be afraid to ask if you should go on or not. Remember, they may just be being polite. You are doing well, the interviewer offered his hand and you shook it, you made eye contact, gave them your best corporate smile (somewhere between the one for people you hate and that of a hyperactive three-year-old); the atmosphere is positive. Keep it that way.

However much disdain you had for the last place you worked, keep it to yourself. Everything must be couched in the positive. Even questions about difficult situations must have positive outcomes.

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CAREERS SECTION From the Desk of Neelam Thapar, Senior Careers Consultant (Student Services) www.londonmet.ac.uk/careers Developing a career in the legal profession means planning ahead. Work experience and skills development is vital and you should be looking at opportunities to take part in activities that will give you relevant experience and skills. Careers Consultants in Student Services are available to help you identify your career goals and help you develop your action plan as well as giving feedback on CVs, application forms and preparing you for interview.

Law students are based at Goulston Street so can just pop in to Student Services on the ground floor of Calcutta House library. A Careers Consultant is normally on duty 12pm -3pm each day for short appointments but please come early to secure a place as it is first come, first served.

As we approach the summer, here is some key timeline information that you need to be aware of.

For those of interested in becoming a solicitor/barrister April 2010 onwards First years • Start to research what career options you have with your law degree.

• Start thinking of networking to gain information about the relevant occupational areas • Plan to gain some work experience both law and non law and see if you can accredit your experience by taking the Professional Work Placement module in Semester One of your next academic year. Come and see Careers for more information • Develop skills by taking part in student societies, pro bono, mooting and debating competitions etc • Look at your CV and come and see Careers for help on this.

• Keep your grades up as law firms will look at these Second Years • If you are looking a becoming a solicitor or barrister, continue your research into what type of law you want to practice in and which firms/chamber offer these opportunities • Look to see what summer vacation schemes/mini pupillages you can still apply to (www.lawcareers.net). Think if there is any other work experience or volunteering that you could do if you have not been able to obtain a placement. Remember that you may be able to accredit your experience by taking the Professional Work Placement module in Semester One of your next academic year.

• Apply for training contracts if you are looking for one starting in 2013. Most application deadlines come at the end of July.

• Visit the Pupillage Portal (https://www.pupillages.com) if you need to get a pupillage starting in 2013. Closing date 28th April 2011.

• Visit Careers to get feedback on applications • Continue research into funding for LPC/BPTC courses • Continue doing your research into alternative careers Final year law students or conversion year students • Keep those grade high and continue to look at how you can gain experience and network with legal professionals • Investigate alternative sources of funding for the LPC /BPTC if you do not have sponsorship • For students who wish to become a barrister, make sure you have joined an Inns of Court if you have not done so already • Make pupillage applications through the Pupillage Portal. These are for pupillage starting in 2012 and 2013. (https://www.pupillages.com). The closing date is 28th April 2011 and you need to make sure that you give time to completing the form and gaining feedback.

Careers Information, Placements, Training Contracts, Vacancies www.lawcareers.net www.juniorlawyers.lawsociety.org.uk www.prospects.ac.uk www.gti.co.uk www.thelawyer.com www.lcan.org.uk www.lawandlegal.co.uk

General Useful Sites Law Centres [www.lawcentres.org.uk] Citizen Advice Bureau [www.citizensadvice.org.uk] Newspapers for Legal Articles/Jobs www.guardian.co.uk www.thetimes.co.uk www.independent.co.uk

Resources for Speculative Applications

www.legal500.com www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/findasolicitor.law www.chambersandpartners.com www.icclaw.com

Volunteering Opportunities including Legal www.do-it.org.uk www.vde.org.uk www.timebank.co.uk

Professional Bodies

Law Society [www.lawsociety.org.uk] Bar Council [www.barcouncil.org.uk] Institute of Legal Executive [www.ilex.org.uk] Junior Lawyers Division [www.juniorlawyers.lawsociety.org. uk]

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GIR SECTION

What Issues are holding back development in Africa?

Salan Forster, IR Development & Peace & Conflict Studies Student

W

hen we talk about development in Africa many key areas prop up; education, health, environment, economy, job opportunities, gender equality etc. The major questions that comes into play are how developed are these areas? And why are the majority of African countries still considered third world or developing?

“People think that what’s happening in Africa is something far away and has nothing to do with them. But the battery in my cellphone is from Africa. The mineral resources in my laptop are from Africa.

The diamond I gave to my wife when I proposed to her is from Africa.” —Yasuhide Nakayama, vice-minister for foreign affairs of Japan. This quote speaks volumes. Why are most if not all African countries developed? Why are they still lagging behind the “Western world”? Do Africans blame their position in the international arena on government corruption, the colonisation of Africa, the de-colonisation process, the influence of Western powers or the lack of Africa being self-reliant?

Many academics have given their theories and statistics on why Africa even in the 21st century is still developing with very little progress in some areas or while other African countries experience major progress. Most of the world’s poverty from past and present statistics is mainly found in Africa, the mortality rate of children is higher in Africa than in any other developing area, like Asia or South America. Considering the African continent is highly rich in resources, has an abundance of land, has a rich culture and an even richer history why haven’t African people utilised these prosperous avenues and made Africa a force to be reckoned with?

History has shown that Africa was a port of trade; exporting resources mainly ranging from minerals to slaves. The whole idea of Africa was to milk off its rich resources but the idea didn’t expand into development. This has been going on since the 13-1500’s when the Arabs first took advantage of African resources, then the Europeans...then the Americans.

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Today we find most Africans dispersed all over the world because of the slave trade, especially in the Caribbean and in North America. Even in America today, African Americans tend to be overlooked in many avenues, there is still inequality and race issues especially in employment, housing and social standing. Why haven’t Africans in these areas been able to move out of poor conditions even with progress in human rights?

“Africa produces less than 2% of carbon dioxide, but we are most affected through this global warming climate change.” —Wasswa Biriggwa, Ugandan ambassador to Japan Africa contributes less to green house emissions yet still has to follow the international environmental rules and regulations when the greatest emitters of green house gases like America, have a very non-chalant attitude towards these issues. Why do developing countries have to contribute what they cannot afford towards an issue that is not their own? Some African countries have even become dumping sites for the West.

“There is a need for such areas of development [in science and technology] and this is where the United Nations comes in, the research centres. But the United Nations has not shown enough presence in Africa.” —Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha. More medical research centres should be opened in African countries.

This is one area that could definitely contribute in African development, as African countries could be less reliant on medical aid and more self-sufficient.

Developing technologies to aid in improving water and electricity supplies and agriculture technologies that benefit crop production for population consumption, can tackle fundamental food shortage issues that contribute to such poor health throughout the continent.

This should be the main avenue to be tackled even before the economy, employment and education. Most African people would say that once they have good health and food they will be able to focus on the secondary issues.

Corruption, as the whole issue of development in Africa is a very broad topic, we cannot help but pinpoint corruption in African governments as being the main hindrance in many African countries. As well as dictatorships and military juntas coming into power after many Africa countries gained their independence, there were also many coups, civil wars and power struggles throughout the continent. Some became nationalists, some socialists, some democratic but many saw a complete decline in their economies. Corruption from Presidents like Mubutu, Sanni Abacha and many others who abused aid given to their countries by the West to the point where debates on whether developmental aid should still be given at all arouse and even debt relief has taken a turn for the worse for many nations, with the money not being implemented in ways which would be beneficial to the country.

Politicians and governments are key front-runners for African countries. Yet these two entities mostly hinder their countries progress due to the infection of power abuse and corruption. At times it takes the unity of all citizens like what happened in Egypt 2011 to make a stand and demand change.”Kenyan people spend 41 billion Kenyan shillings every year to purchase Japanese products. On the other hand, Japanese people only spend 1.3 billion shillings every year to buy Kenyan products. So who is helping who?” —William arap Ruto.

Africans want development, yet we never help ourselves first, we produce products and export them to benefit other countries and we also contribute to their economies by buying their products. How do we move forward if we continue in this way? Complaints of famine exist due to the erosion of the soil and due to growing crops for export which continues to be an ongoing problem. Yet in 2010 most African people even those below the poverty line owned a mobile phone, mostly made outside Africa. Why couldn’t Africa manufacture and produce the mobile phones itself? The minerals and resources that make the mobiles come from Africa anyway, just like diamonds. Why has Africa not been able to capitalize on these resources?

The only way to solve the development problem in Africa is to give African’s the ability to control their needs, whether it’s through medicine, agriculture, politics or business. Currently Africa still finds itself struggling because it hasn’t been able to use the power of its resources in a positive way.

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GIR SECTION

European Court of Justice ruling on gender equality Adam Brodalski, LLB student

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he European Court of Justice made a ruling regarding the current EU legislation of sex equality that could see insurance and premiums changed, hitting young people and students. The new law, effective as soon as 21st December 2012, will see the premiums for young women rise while lowering the contribution from young men.

Such a provision, which enables the Member States in question to maintain without temporal limitation an exemption from the rule of unisex premiums and benefits, works against the achievement of the objective of equal treatment between men and women, which is the purpose of Directive 2004/113 (…)”

The case of Association Belge des Consommateurs Test-Achats and Others (Case C-236/09), decided on the 1st of March 2011 by the ECJ, following the recommendation of the Advocate General, concerned the “Equal Treatment in Goods and Services Directive” (2004/113/EC). Under Article 5(2), it permits: “proportionate differences in individuals’ premiums and benefits where the use of sex in a determining factor in the assessment of risk based on relevant and accurate and actuarial statistical data”. The court held that when the EU undertakes action to promote equality and eliminate inequalities as provided by Article 8 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, this action “must contribute, in a coherent manner, to the achievement of the intended objective”. It went on to say, at para 31: “(…) there is a risk that EU law may permit the derogation from the equal treatment of men and women, provided for in Article 5(2) of Directive 2004/113, to persist indefinitely.

It went on to say, at para 31: “(…) there is a risk that EU law may permit the derogation from the equal treatment of men and women, provided for in Article 5(2) of Directive 2004/113, to persist indefinitely. Such a provision, which enables the Member States in question to maintain without temporal limitation an exemption from the rule of unisex premiums and benefits, works against the achievement of the objective of equal treatment between men and women, which is the purpose of Directive 2004/113 (…)”

The decision, which could lead to young women paying up to 25-30% more while lowering young males premiums by about 10% (up to 25% in some cases), caused controversy among commentators and was met with mixed opinions.

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) and AGE Platform Europe, who partnered with Belgian consumer’s organisation Test-Achats in bringing the action, were very satisfied with the result.

Alexandra Jachanova Dolezelova, EWL Vice-President said: “This ruling, which confirms that there can be no exceptions to fundamental rights in the EU, is a victory for fairness, common-sense, solidarity and the rule of law. We expect it to have substantial direct and indirect impacts on the quality of women's lives in Europe”. In the UK the judgment encountered some criticism by senior politicians, including members of the House of Lords. Speaking in the House, Baroness Verma said that the British government made oral and written representations to the ECJ during the proceedings, arguing that: “(…) rather then preventing true equality, the Article in question ensured that different cases could be treated differently, thereby ensuring true equality”. She said the government was “disappointed” by the ruling, adding: “It is clearly undesirable to treat people unfairly because of their sex.

However, financial services providers will be allowed a period in which to make the changes”

Colonel Gaddafi and Knight Berlusconi: A curious duo Daniela Gorza, International Relations Student

S

ince the end of Italian colonialism in Libya until the signing of the “Treaty on Friendship, Partnership and Co-operation” in August 2008, the 7th October marked the anniversary of the Libyan “Day of Revenge” which was a day of protests celebrating the expulsion of Italians from Libya.

As a result of these events, the relationship between the two countries has been intense and at times fraught. In fact, from being one of the most dreaded enemies of Libya, Italy has become one of its most important partners. The Treaty signed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Benghazi, Libya witnessed the dawn of an intense and friendly alliance between the two Mediterranean states. Whereas previously Libyan streets, especially during the “Day of Revenge”, were covered by giant posters depicting farmers slaughtered by the Italians, nowadays those regretful images have been replaced by massive pictures portraying the Italian Prime Minister together with the Libyan Colonel in friendly behaviour.

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However, the Prime Minister’s apologies were not the only reasons that led to ItalianLibyan relations flourishing. Libya, which had international trade sanctions imposed in the past, needed help in reaffirming itself on a global level and this was where the personal relationship between the two leaders strengthened.

Whereas the two countries do not share many similarities, what do these two men have in common? Silvio Berlusconi was born 74 years ago in Milan. He graduated in law in 1961 and ever since the early stages of his career has stood out for his entrepreneurial spirit establishing a local cable-television outfit Telemilano which subsequently turned into Mediaset, one of the biggest media companies in Italy. Nowadays, Fininvest, his holding company owns newspapers, such as IL GIORNALE, a publishing house (Mondadori) and AC Milan to name but a few. The US business magazine Forbes estimates his fortune at around $9bn. In the private sphere he is renowned for his love towards women. Gaddafi was born in 1942 into a nomadic family near Sirte, Libya.

Since the early stages, his turbulent character was latent: he was expelled by his school in 1961 because of his political activities, influenced in great measures by Nasser, President of Egypt from 1956 to 1970, and the wave of nationalism which was lavished throughout the Middle East in the mid 50s.

Soon after leaving school he joined the army and founded the Free Unitary Officers group. After becoming leader of the Libyan Republic he was seen as one of the most reviled leaders during the 1990s prompting his decision to move away from terrorism and get closer to the West, establishing economic relations and supporting the West after the 9/11 attacks and in the on-going War on Terror.

Similarities can be seen in them both being megalomaniacal, overwhelmed, narcissistic (Berlusconi in particular has had a hair transplant and plastic surgery around his eyes), determined leaders, who love to govern but despise rules. They both love beautiful women. Gaddafi likes to surround himself by the so-called “Amazonian guard” - an army of female, virgin bodyguards. The Knight, Berlusconi, on the other hand, seems to not be bothered by the virginity of the ladies whilst attending his infamous “Bunga Bunga” parties. Berlusconi also surrounds himself with female politicians having advanced many show-girls into such positions. The two leaders rule indisputably as evidenced by glancing at their criminal records. The Colonel was sanctioned many times for his terrorist activities; the other, although still to stand trial has been investigated by the Italian Judiciary on many occasions and has three suspended trials to face. Freedom of expression does not seem to be a concept welcomed by the two leaders either. Whereas in Libya freedom of expression is forbidden by law; the Italian Constitution enshrines the principle that freedom should exist, but given the hegemonic presence of Berlusconi in the Italian media it is difficult to achieve. Similarities in their personalities and lifestyles perhaps explain this friendship: this curious duo.

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GIR SECTION

Peace Vs Conflict : Has the West Forgotten Peace?

M.E. Warren, Peace and Conflict Student

I

’m sure everyone is aware of two things that have happened recently, the tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan, and the much more focused on, conflict in Libya. It’s a sad state of affairs that the tragedy in Japan is being overshadowed by actions in the West. But this begs the question of why are the mostly NATO countries more tied up in conflict than ever before?

Let’s back track history to 1940, the US, which is now considered internationally to be a militaristic bully, was non-interventionist and would be the last of the “Western World” to join WWII. Britain and France were becoming weaker empires and their pursuit of land and power had begun to decline. In fact despite the many transgressions of international treaties and law by Germany and Italy, the League of Nations chose not to get involved until the major states were threatened. We all know the outcome of WWII, but why did the military views of these nations change from one of isolationism to humanitarian action?

I certainly think that the difficulties in Japan deserve more funding and international intervention than Libya. First of all, Japan is struggling and as an important world economy and provider of so many of our electronics and cars has more influence on the security of the developed and undeveloped world than Libya does.

The current recession also means that military costs are weighing more heavily on the developed world than during times of economic success, with the war in Iraq costing about $12 billion every month during 2008 and the amount has only climbed higher since, reaching well into the trillions in total cost. Financially the countries involved in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya are going to be faced with overwhelming debt, rising taxes, lowering welfare, job loss and many other financial difficulties related to economic deficit. The military powerhouses of the 20th Century cannot support taking on another war, aid to Japan is much more reasonable in more ways than just financially. There used to be the liberal idea that the state existed only to serve and protect its citizen’s rights. I don’t see how the involvement of the UK, the US and France in Libya protect my wellbeing and my interests. It doesn’t help the citizens financially, and it almost seems to be ignoring the pleas from many to end the violence.

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Wasn’t democracy supposed to be about protecting the interests and rights of the citizens? Because many Western countries seem to have forgotten just who they are supposed to be serving, it is unsurprising that action had already taken place before both the Houses of Parliament and US Congress were informed. If this is the democracy that others are supposed to emulate, shouldn’t it actually be democratic?

Americans voted for Obama to end all the wars, not join them, just as the British seek to finish the wars, not enter more.

More importantly is the question of why the US, UK and French forces are so concerned about Gaddafi. I’m not in favour of his rule, but no matter how I look at the conflict in Libya it appears to be a civil war. Their power struggle should be backed by their people, not controlled by outside influences – if they want change it is their war to fight.

This may seem cruel, but no matter how it is done, “humanitarian intervention” is still warfare, it will still cost lives, create incalculable damage and ultimately trivialize the beliefs and work of the Libyan rebels. Worse still is the fact that none of the governments seems to have any plan on how to proceed or even a clear answer as to why they’ve committed our taxes and our soldiers to yet another conflict that doesn’t seem to have much to do with us. The idea of “preventive tactics” hasn’t worked for any other wars and I anticipate that such force will only leave Libyans in another dictatorship, just as many other instances of Western intervention in other states internal conflict has in the past. And each time the developed world is faced with a new “monster” of their own creation.

There is also quite a lot of talk about strategic bombing, with new technological advances in targeting. But no matter how accurate a bomb is, they don’t always end up where they were intended and a bomb can’t discriminate between the civilians and the militants. Already there have been reports of bombs killing the wrong people. It just appears to be Iraq all over again, shocking enough that the West seems to be ignoring the past failures, even with huge budget cuts in the military funding of Britain and the US are still trying to squeeze out another “victory”.

Even worse is that no one seems to understand who will be leading the attacks since the US has already hinted that it will not lead the attacks on Gaddafi’s forces, the French who were so eager to jump in don’t seem to be coming forward to take the lead and the UK has requested that the UN hand over authorization to NATO to deal with Libya. So the three major players in the UN and NATO are all unwilling to lead the charge, it begs the question why were they so willing to enter into Libya’s internal affairs in the first place? The disorganization of these armed forces can also cost the taxpayers further billions in wasted expenses, which certainly doesn’t seem to be beneficial to the interests of their citizens.

The West needs to learn to let states have their internal conflicts; it’s not their empire anymore, though France’s surge to gain approval from the UN for “intervention” seems to hint that they haven’t entirely given up their idea that Libya isn’t their problem. Libya has been its own state since 1951, and if they are ever going to succeed they need to be given true self-determination and sovereign separation from France, the UK and the US. Western powers are becoming their own undoing, forgetting about their economies, the opinions of their citizens, and even true tragedies in actual need of intervention like Japan.

Japan practically disappeared overnight when the conflict in Libya began to erupt.

But that doesn’t mean their problems have disappeared. It truly shows the world to be in a sad state when some of the countries considered to be world leaders are more focused on the issues within a separate sovereign state than in the horrible events taking place in one of their allies and main trading partners.

With many dead and missing, cities reduced to rubble, and the possibility of nuclear meltdown facing the country you would think it would have lasted longer than a couple weeks in the media. You would think the international priority, especially of peace promoting organizations like the UN, would be on helping Japan instead of warfare. My only hope is that this doesn’t mean that the purpose of the UN has been forgotten, only the next few months will tell, and don’t forget that Japan needs the support and help of its allies, donate and raise awareness that the struggle Japan faces is long from over.

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LAW STAFF SECTION

SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK N’ ROLL IN THE JURY ROOM

– BUT NOBODY HAS THE POWER TO DISCUSS IT, LET ALONE PREVENT IT Edwin Shorts

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eader, before you decide to completely skip this article (I admit that the title itself sounds somewhat boring and off-putting)), imagine that you are the defendant in a murder trial – you are innocent, of course. But you are not completely sure that the jury will see it that way. Now consider the following scenarios (1) The jury decide to hold a séance in order to contact someone on the ‘other side’ who will determine your guilt or innocence.

Are you happy about this? After all, the ‘voice’ may declare you innocent and may even name the real murderer (you never know). (2) The jury includes three BNP members and two Neo-Nazi sympathisers.

Just your luck, you are a black immigrant –– you really should not start thinking about booking any holidays at this point, and (3) The jury decide to determine your guilt or innocence by the toss of a coin. Are you happy about this? After all, you have a 50/50 chance – maybe good odds in your case. Well! What are the chances in the above three cases of the jury deciding your guilt or innocence on the evidence?

Answer? Absolute zero. Why? Because that is the jury system. And in the jury world

The reasoning behind this was stated in Attorney-General v. New Statesman [1981] 1 QB 1, as being (a) that the finality of the jury’s verdict was not to be undermined in any way, else public confidence would be diminished in the general correctness and proprietary of such verdicts and not (b) to affect adversely the attitude of future jurors and the equality of their deliberations.

If discussion about the jury’s deliberations were allowed to be made public, then jurors in the future may be hesitant to freely give their opinions in the jury room since afterwards they may be pressurised into giving their reasons on why they reached such a decision. Further, no doubt the convicted criminal might also take offence upon how the verdict was reached, and potential jurors might feel inhibited to express their true opinions for fear of reprisals, and thereby subjecting the whole jury system to an unpredictable future.

As a result protecting the secrecy of a jury’s deliberations from outside scrutiny or divulging any information regarding such activities has always been paramount.

Indeed, such secrecy has always been considered absolute.

The sanctity of the jury room has Wait a minute! Does that mean that long been held to be the cornerstone of what the jury say or do ‘inside’ and ‘outthe whole jury system. In the UK, it has side’ the jury room cannot be questioned? always been understood that deliberations between members of the jury were sacrosanct and ought not to be discussed outside those legal confines; unlike some other countries, for example, the USA, where jurors are allowed to discuss publicly the events which occurred earlier on in the jury room (in fact, some jurors even write books about their experiences in wellpublicised trials). Now, in the UK (this is the legal bit,) Section 8 of the Contempt of Court 1981 Act (‘COCA’) entitled ‘Confidentiality of jury's deliberations’ provides that:

Dictum April 2011

Since the judge should inform the jury that they should not deliberate during their overnight stay, it should not be considered to be part of their ‘retirement period’. The court concluded that they could question the activities that went on at the hotel only, but not what transpired in the jury room later. They considered that what occurred in the hotel had to be considered as more than merely a light-hearted game and as a result was a material irregularity. The question was, did the jurors present believe the ouija and was there a risk that they might be influenced by the answers given by the ouija? The court answered in the affirmative and allowed the appeal whilst at the same time ordering a retrial.

Wait a minute! Does that mean that what the jury say or do ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the jury room cannot be questioned?

………..it is a contempt of court to obtain, disclose or solicit any particulars of statements made, opinions expressed, arguments advanced or votes cast by members of a jury in the course of their deliberations in any legal proceedings.

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In R v Young [1995] 2 W.L.R. 430 (more legal stuff) a much publicised case involving the jury’s verdict in a murder trial which was influenced by a ouija board, used by four jurors in a hotel room on the night prior to rendering their verdict. By using a ouija board, the jurors asked and received answers from the murdered victims including the words ‘S..T..E..V..E Y..O..U..N..G D..O..N..E I..T’ T’ (not very well educated spirits – maybe there was more than one type of spirit working that night). The appellant, Young, was subsequently convicted of a double murder.

He appealed on the grounds of a material irregularity arguing that the jury’s verdict was not solely based on the evidence given in court. One of the questions for the court was whether once the jury retired to consider their verdict, and had to stay overnight in a hotel, could their conduct during that period be considered to be ‘in the course of their deliberations’, so that the court was not allowed to question the jury’s behaviour where it related to the case in question?

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LAW STAFF SECTION If so, does that mean that section 8 is incompatible with article 6? above, the House said that section 8 of the COCA 1981 is aimed at preventing information seeping out to third parties, especially the media, and thereby destroying the essential ‘secrecy’ element required by the provision. Accordingly, post-verdict the jury’s deliberations cannot be questioned or investigated. However, during the trial jury members should be advised to bring any concerns they may have about irregularities or inappropriate behaviour of other jury members to the attention of the judge. The judge should also warn the jury of the importance of not discussing the case with outsiders. (See Practice Direction (Crown Court: Guidance to Jurors) [2004] 1 WLR 665).

Well! What about the third scenario, i.e., tossing the coin? Is there not a case for that example? So far, I am not aware of such a case. Even so, has it already happened?

Maybe, maybe not. But if it did occur within the confines of the jury room, we would never know. Spooky?

As an addendum to the above discussion Reader, do not think that after the trial you are free to say or write anything you like about your experiences of being a juror? Far from it. Disclosure of information from jury deliberations to outsiders may result in contempt of court for that juror. For example, in Attorney General v Scotcher [2005] 1 WLR 1867 a juror wrote to the mother of two defendants, who were previously found guilty, detailing what was said in the jury room during the deliberations. Once the Attorney General discovered who the juror was, proceedings were taken against the particular juror for contempt and he received a suspended sentence. It was suggested that there can be no contempt where the motive behind the disclosure was to avert a miscarriage of justice. This was rejected by the House of Lords on the grounds that section 8 of the COCA does not make provision for such a defence.

Well, Reader, our defendant in the first scenario would have had very strong grounds for appeal, had he been found guilty under those circumstances. But how would he have fared in our second example above? Here, the legal question is, should the court be allowed to investigate such behaviour e.g., of racist jurors, or should the veil of absolute secrecy be maintained?

In R v Mirza; R v Connor and Rollock [2004] 2 WLR 201, (sorry, yet more legal stuff coming) in the first appellant’s case, a letter was sent by a juror to the court after the verdict was given, stating that some of the jurors were racist and that they were prejudiced against the defendant who was Asian. Also during the trial two notes were handed to the judge questioning the use of an interpreter for the defendant (who had been living in the UK for some 13 years).

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As regards the second appellants, they had been charged with grevious bodily harm offences. Post-verdict, a juror sent a letter to the court, stating that since the jury could ‘not decide which one of the defendants was guilty (they thought it was one or the other), they would return a verdict of guilty against both of them to save time and to ‘teach them a lesson, things in this life are not fair, and sometimes innocent people would have to pay the price’.

There were two main questions of law to be considered; (1) ‘should the common law prohibition on the admission of evidence of the jury’s deliberation prevail even if the….. statement from a juror would provide prima facie evidence of jury partiality in breach of article 6 (right to a fair trial)?’ As regards question (2) does section 8 of the COCA contain the same prohibition.

So, there you have it Reader - provided you are deliberating a verdict in the jury room, sex (I think doing ‘drugs’ may find objection with the other jurors) and rock n’ roll appear perfectly acceptable. So, if you are ever fortunate enough to be selected for jury duty and you do not have a job to go back to (you do get paid for jury service), do your civic duty with pride and take your time (two weeks should suffice) with your verdict and enjoy the accommodation, hospitality, food and drink, etc that Her Majesty has so kindly bestowed upon you. Three cheers for the sanctity of the jury room!!!!

MA; Barrister-at-Law; Senior Lecturer in Law Edwin Shorts is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the London Metropolitan University. He teaches on the LLM, CPE and the Undergraduate Law Programme.

His academic interests include Civil Liberties and Human Rights, the Law of Contract and Researching Business Law. Apart from teaching at other UK universities, such as City University, SOAS and Southampton University, he has also lectured at the Ecole Professionelle des Barreaux de Paris.

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Fraud AND JUROR Why it is important to focus on the issue of juror suitability in complex fraud trials and not the symbolic rhetoric associated with the right to trial by jury?

Chris Monaghan1

Chris Monaghan is a visiting lecturer in law at the London Metropolitan University.

His main research interest include Property Law (Both Civil and Criminal), Commercial and Public Law.

A symbolic concession of popular participation in the age of the ‘Big Society’ How controversial is the following: The institution of the jury is a constitutional right that was enshrined in the Magna Carta and guarantee’s Englishmen protection from arbitrary laws imposed by our rulers. The jury prevents absolutism and allows the tribunal of fact to return a perverse verdict, where the jury are not persuaded in the circumstances, that criminalising a defendant’s particular conduct is appropriate. The jury is the symbol of our criminal justice system and any attempt to restrict the right to trial by jury is dangerous. It is the ‘light that shows freedom lives’2; it is democratic and enables ordinary people to participate in the legal decision making3. In the age of the Big Society what could be better than popular participation in the criminal justice system? It is no coincidence that on many occasions when a soap opera character appears in court, heir case is invariably tried by a jury.

The constitutional right of trial by jury was rejected by Auld L.J in his review of the criminal justice system in England and Wales in 20014.

The Magna Carta does not guarantee the right to trial by jury; it was an attempt by the Barons to restrict the power of King John. The late Lord Devlin was an ardent supporter of the right to trial by jury and had argued that the jury had a democratic value as jurors could serve on the front line to prevent arbitrary laws from being enforced5. Certainly the jury serves a symbolic purpose, however in reality less than five percent of criminal cases are tried by the jury6. Recently in R v T7 a case that concerned the first non-jury trial under s.44 Criminal Justice Act 2003 (jury tampering), the Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge rejected the argument that trial by judge alone breached Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Looking at the suitability of each offence – avoiding a broader debate It is submitted that whilst the jury serves an important symbolic purpose in the criminal justice system [when many members of the judiciary may appear unrepresentative of the wider population8] trial by jury is far from a suitable method to try every offence. The recent report conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Justice by Professor Cheryl Thomas ‘Are Juries Fair’9, concluded that juries were fair . Professor Thomas had carried out research into juror acquittal/conviction rates. However, the purpose of this article is to state why trial by jury is unsuitable for a minority of fraud trials, and not the suitability of trial by jury generally.

Complex and serious fraud trials Are juries suitable for complex fraud trials? The view of commentators (both academic and practitioners) is far from unanimous. There are many who argued that trial by jury for complex fraud cases is inappropriate. Amongst the arguments put forward is that: o The jury cannot comprehend all the salient issues in a complex fraud case. o The democratic nature of trial by jury means that not all jurors will be able to understand the complex argument put forward by counsel. o Fraud cases although a minority of criminal cases are on average the longest. o The duration of a complex fraud trial is excessive and this means that it is unfair to expect a juror to serve this long. o The prosecution must reduce the charges brought, number of defendants and evidence adduced. o The jury’s presence adds to the excessive duration as counsel needs to use advocacy to persuade the jurors. o There is concern that the jury often wrongly acquit (R v Maxwell), or the presence of the jury contributes to the collapse of a trial (Jubilee Line Case: R v Rayment and others)

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LAW STAFF SECTION Equally on the other hand supporters of the retention of the jury will argue that: o There is evidence that jurors will work together and that the weaker members will be guided by those who understand the issues. o There is evidence that in time the jury will understand the issues. o Members of the judiciary when questioned anonymously by Julian10 supported the retention of jury trials for complex fraud cases. o Jurors understand the longevity and support the retention of the jury (Jubilee Line case report)11. o Greater case management and procedural rules will decrease the complexity and length. o The Jubilee Line report has exonerated the jury from being responsible to the collapse of the trial. o Jury acquittals are low for fraud. o The restriction of trial by jury for complex fraud trials will lead to a further restriction of the right to trial by jury for other offences. The ‘slippery slope argument’.

The role and suitability of the jury in complex fraud has been controversial for many decades. Levi12 reviewed the main criticisms made against the jury and argues strongly in favour of the jury.

Roskill’s fraud tribunals The Roskill Committee13 in 1986 recommended that for complex fraud trials, the use of the jury be restricted. Instead, the case would be tried by fraud tribunal that would be composed of a judge and two experts. This recommendation was ignored by the then government. One of the reasons was the dissenting argument of Mr. Walter Merrick one of the committee members, which gained considerable support14 .

Auld’s judge-alone trials The Auld Report in 200115 recommended the use of judge alone trials in complex fraud cases. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (which implemented many of Auld LJ’s recommendations) contained s.43. Section 43 would have allowed for judge alone trials in complex fraud cases. This would mean that the trial judge could try the case alone, where she believed that it would be too burdensome or against the interests of justice, not to do so. Peter Thornton QC has criticised s.43 and has called it ‘devoid of meaning’ and appears to regard it as a dangerous piece of legislation16.

Section 43 was the subject of fierce debate in the Bill stages and the then government agreed that it would not be enacted without the consent of both Houses of Parliament. The Fraud (Trials without a Jury) Bill 2006-07 was introduced in November 2006 in the House of Commons. The Bill was extremely controversial and failed to receive the required consent and has not been pursued.

It is doubtful that the Coalition Government would have the same zeal as the previous government, with regards to restricting the right of trial by jury. It is submitted that s.43 serves a purpose: it allows the trial judge to hear the case alone where she believes that it is appropriate to do so. There is judicial discretion in determining whether the test has been met, but arguably it is the trial judge who is in the best position to decide this point.

Conclusion Section 43 must be viewed in isolation from the broader arguments for and against trial by jury. The question which must be asked is whether the section is needed. It is submitted that it is. Given that the judges when interviewed by Julian favoured the retention of trial by jury in complex fraud cases, it is doubtful that the provision if enacted would be used as the norm. Instead it would be used where appropriate, where the issues were considered by the judge (in their experience) to be too complex for the jury. This provision if enacted would offer an alternative and not a replacement to trial by jury. It is conceded that this issue is extremely controversial and there will be many who disagree. Healthy debate on how our criminal justice system operates in the 21st Century is a good thing – taking comfort in nostalgic assumptions and rhetoric should be avoided.

__________________________________________________________________________ Visiting Lecturer in Law, London Metropolitan University, c.monaghan@londonmet.ac.uk Lord Devlin, Trial by Jury ( University Paperbacks: London, 1966) 164 3 See De Tocqueville, A. Democracy in America, (Hackett: 2005) 124-125.

4 Auld LJ, Review of the Criminal Courts of England and Wales, (2001) 5 Lord Devlin. “The Conscience of the Jury” [1991] L.Q.R. 107, 398 6 Ashworth. A and Redmayne, M. The Criminal Process (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2005) at p.297 7 [2009] EWCA Crim 1035 8 Barmes, L and Malleson, K. ‘The Legal Profession as Gatekeeper to the Judiciary’. [2011] 74(2) MLR 245 at 246. The authors argue that the recruitment into the legal profession has an effect on the composition of the judiciary. Therefore ‘(T)he judiciary, and especially the senior judiciary, reflects the systematic disadvantage and marginalisation in the legal profession of certain identify groups; notably but not exclusively, women and members of ethnic minorities’.

9 Thomas, C. (2010) Are Juries Fair?, London : Ministry of Justice 10 Julian, R.F. “Judicial Perspectives on the Conduct of Serious fraud Trials” [2007] Crim. L.R. 751 11 Report on Interviews with Jurors in the Jubilee Line Case, commissioned by the HMCPSI (2005) 12 Levi, M. “Blaming the Jury: Frauds on Trial” [1983] 10 J. Law Soc. 257 13 Roskill Committee, Fraud Trials Committee Report (HMSO, London, 1986), 14 See the critique of the Roskill Report by Professor Zander. Zander, M. “The report of the Roskill Committee on fraud trials” [1986] Crim. L.R. 423 15 Auld LJ, Review of the Criminal Courts of England and Wales, (2001) 16 Thornton, P. “Trial by jury: 50 years of change” [2004] Crim. L.R. 683 1 2

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The much lamented Death of Madam Geneva Lesley Neenan

I

Gin is made by macerating botanicals in a neutral, flavourless spirit and distilling it in a carterhead pot still. The most important of these botanicals is juniper, or ‘genever’ in Dutch, from where the name gin originates. The main botanicals used are juniper berries. (Thanks to Wikipedia for the Science).

was reading a paper last week and found an article on binge drinking.

Photographs of young (well mostly) females dressed in scanty clothes that were falling off as they tottered around on vertiginous heels. The article repeated the well known mantra that alcohol abuse was a sign of our times. The golden age of a … society had passed by. The article called for drastic measures to cut down on alcohol.

But will it work?

Well it didn’t work in the past.

Let us begin at the beginning. Since time began we have all been searching for the meaning of life. Henry II found it when he sent his troops on an all expenses paid invasion of Ireland. His troops discovered monks distilling and drinking aqua vita, the water of life. A distilled spirit of a nearly lethal level of proof that could knock you out just by reading the label and you thought today’s cocktails were bad.

Of course this was not distilled for enjoyment. Oh no. It was the Middle Ages version of aspirin or penicillin. It would cure anything, a hangover, common cold, the plague, scurvy. Well, perhaps not the common cold.

But it was a spirit, a clear liquid that was distilled. It was not brewed. Beer was brewed; it was wholesome and good for you.

Your father drank beer, your grandfather drank beer. It was a lot weaker than some of the stuff you have today and it was what everyone would drink because the water was frequently contaminated.

But Aqua Vita incurred the wrath of the great and the good of Europe from a very early age. As far back as 1450 it was declared in the Branburg Codex that “No one shall serve aquavit or give it to his guests”.

Even France was wary of distilled liquids and banned brandy in 1651. Then we had the so called Glorious revolution of 1689 when not only did we get a foreign set of monarchs in William & Mary but we also saw the gateway open to clubbing as we know it today. William & Mary were Dutch and so was their companion Madam Geneva otherwise know as gin. The gradual success of gin owes much to the same reason anything succeeds today. Supply demand and advertising. Gin is made by distilling liquids over and over again to concentrate to drink.

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It was in common use in Holland, hence the phrase ‘Dutch courage’ meaning you had a drink or two to find the courage to do something.

Gin became very popular as you could distill gin in a small room and as it was a lot more intoxicating than beer you had a bigger profit margin.

It was also very popular with farmers who grew grain that was needed to distil the gin.

However it was not so popular with the farmers who supplied the raw material for beer as they saw their profits fall. Not only was it the god of profit who had a loud voice but the Church seeing what they saw as the destruction of God fearing society became involved. An evangelical vicar of the church of St Botolph-without-Aldgate (yes that’s our local folks) said gin was leading to the growth of immorality and the end of a Christian society.

They clamoured for prohibition, not for beer of course, only gin. Numerous Gin Acts were passed to require anyone who sold or distilled gin to be licensed which only succeeded in driving the gin trade underground. These had little effect. Bootleggers thrived with women keeping flagons of gin under their volumous skirts and dispensing it upon payment.

More than that, thanks to an enterprising individual called Captain Dudley Bradstreet the term “meow meow” was synonymous with drugs long before the twenty-first Century.

He had no money but he had imagination. He spent his last few pound buying good quality gin which he took home. He placed a pipe out of his house with a cat to mark it. He had spread the word that gin would be available where you see the cat. It took a while for people to arrive but he soon made a lot of money. People would come to the house, put money in a Shute and cry puss.

The reply would be Mew (meow) and gin would be poured out to the customer. Gin thrived, satirists thrived and artists like Hogarth produced Gin Lane to show just what damage the drink did to people. Judith Defours is the mother who can be seen in the engraving letting her child fall to its death. She sold her child’s clothes for gin money.

Eventually gin fell into general use. Other drinks arrived. Brandy was imported again and although the infamy of gin with its modern nickname of ‘mother’s ruin’ is still here we have an abundance of substances to get us drunk.

Is it the substance or the consumer that is the problem and will we ever learn to curb our use of intoxicating substances?

With thanks to “The much lamented Death of Madam Geneva” Patrick Dillon

Lesley Neenan is a Senior Lecturer at London Metropolitan University.

Her practice is general common law specialising in the chancery aspect of family law, child law, immigration law and criminal law.

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The President’s Memoirs

SU PAGE

Yeasher Ahmed, Marketing Graduate and SU President 2009-2011

L

ondonMetSU has gone from nothing to something. In just two years, a lot has happened. Our union has gone from nothing to something and as they say, true leaders come and go but it is the legacy they leave behind which matters.

The University Governing body decided to fund the Union as they believe it is important to have a student representative. It is also necessary to give students a voice on the decision making process of the University in line with the Education Act 1994.

We took up the post in 15th July 2009, after a handover organised by the interim staff members of the Students union employed by the Student service for the academic year 2007/8. Our first few months were very difficult with strong dispute between us and the university about the poor condition of the Students union and the university’s lack of care and support to the Students Union’s problems especially the space and location of the Students Union at North campus. My colleagues were already in difficult condition with large number of caseworks and immense pressure from attending the meeting with highly experienced and knowledge people around each of the committee meeting, with their limited capability which were not adequate. We were under enormous pressure with so many caseworks and students demand for support and services. All of us tried to do our best to deliver as much as we could with no professional support. In the middle of April 2009, we decided to request for extra casework support and an additional staff member to coordinate the StAR’s Scheme as it was too much for elected officers and we were risking legal action in case of giving the wrong advice.

Nevertheless, after a long debate between the University and Students Union and my constant lobby to the interim Vice Chancellor , we finally managed to get funding for three Staff members who could be employed by the university but seconded to Students Union. However, the process of employing two caseworkers was so bureaucratic that we could not employ them until the end of the year and the STAR’s coordination was never given.

There were many challenges right in front of us. The University was in financial turmoil with HEFCE which resulted to the former ViceChancellor to step down. A new interim Vice Chancellor was appointed by the board to resolved University financial problem.

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The interim Vice Chancellor took up his post at the same time we did. However, there were no positive outcomes from any meeting with the former interim Vice-Chancellor. He was more concerned about the university’s interest rather than the students in the middle of severe financial crisis. The university governing body announced that a significant number of staff will be made redundant as part of University Cost Improvement Plans. As Students Union President, I was privileged to take part of almost every major decision during that year.

After the HEFCE declared its no confidence to the then university governing body we had no other option but to stand against the Board of Governors and lobby them to resign. We immediately called for AGM and took approval from students to protest against University Governing members. We had Wes Streeting, the President of National Union (NUS) at the time speaking to our students about the importance of their action in order to defend their education. We organised a joint protest with staff unions (UCU and Unison) at the University which was strongly supported and vigorously assisted by the NUS. Hundreds of students gathered at Moorgate campus on the 15th of December 2009 to lobby the governors to resign. The demo was very successful and on that meeting all the governor resigned. The achievement by the joint effort of three unions was remarkable which had actually safeguarded the London Metropolitan University.

At the very beginning of the year 2010, we had our new Vice Chancellor appointed and a new beginning of a proper students union was ushered from his first day visit to the Students Union office at North campus and his promise to build a properly structured and fully functional students union. However, over the last few years the Students Union and its function was unknown to almost every students at the university. We endeavoured to promote the union and organised many activities, some of which was well- attended by many students. But due to lack of resources, we could only organise very limited events We endeavoured to promote the union and organised many activities, some of which was well- attended by many students. But due to lack of resources, we could only organise very limited events. At the Student council we were heavily criticised by its members for not organising activities for students. Many council members constantly raised the poor administrative support for society events and university’s binding regulations to invite guest speakers to attend society events.

We endeavoured to promote the union and organised many activities, some of which was well- attended by many students. But due to lack of resources, we could only organise very limited events.

At the Student council we were heavily criticised by its members for not organising activities for students. Many council members constantly raised the poor administrative support for society events and university’s binding regulations to invite guest speakers to attend society events.

Societies are currently administered by the Student office which is a sub- department of student services which started in 2006 after the university segregated some services from the Students union by passing a special resolution to the Board of Governors. We had no control over the Students Societies until the new Director of Student services took up her post and decided to work more of a partnership role with the Students union and student services.

For the first year, the biggest challenge for the Students Union was its awareness among its members. Many Students did not know about the Union. However, despite of many challenges, my team did a great job to improve the profile of the Students Union to its members and to the University Management. We have achieved almost everything we aimed and my continuity as President for this year with a very dynamic team and their great efforts, the Students Union is now on the top of the agenda. Our new office at North was recently opened which is visible and in central location with a massive open space that can be used to organise society fairs and students’ events during summer times. We also have a new media department where Students Union Radio station is located. We have amazing Verve magazine which has impressed many of our members with its exceptional quality and students utmost endeavours to provide quality writing for the students by the students. We also influenced the Dictum; the first departmental law magazine with excellent quality of writing and extraordinary features about many good things at the University. My team actively worked to improved Students experience since we took the office. We constantly lobby the University for more Wi-Fi at the university, improve the Learning centre facilities, more social spaces for students, free water fountains, fast IT support, more books at the library.

Starting out from scratch, our achievement over the last two years was incredible. Two of my colleagues from the first year; Amir Ramin the Vice President City and Richi Sethie the Vice President North who were not with me this year have made significant contribution to the current stage of the Students Union through their exceptional knowledge and tireless effort to lobby the University governing body and Senior Management during their time in office with me in 2009-2010. Tareq, the current Participations and Development officer fought along to deliver as many events as possible to ensure a better sense of students’ life at the university. But all his good effort was narrowed down by the huge bureaucratic barriers at the university.

However this year, Tareq as a re-elected officer and our Welfare officer Sara Awayez’s partnership to organise exciting events was brilliant and they have been very successful. The opening ceremony of the North Campus office is a perfect example. This year we have large number of students contesting at the annual election which is a record high in London Met Students union election history.

Our relationships with the university have improved significantly from last two years. We have a better partnership with the university and our partnership is working well to meet the demands of our students. The University now has a new board of governors who are very pro Students Union and some of the board members are with the students’ union background which has already helped me to build better relationship with the Governing body and earned their trust.

Over the years, the Students Union will go through its major structural changes which will be based on the implication of Brown review and the need of potential students at the higher education. Hence the future of the students union will be soon devolved to the capable hand of newly elected team to be led by its new leader _____.

Yeashir Ahmed LondonMetSU President 2009-2011

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SU PAGE A firsthand account of the

26 March TUC Protest

by Jenny Bloom English Literature student

A

s one of those "last remaining" violent protestors, and one of the arrests, I'd like to put the evening across as I saw it.

During the day, protestors had been divided into the vast majority who followed the planned route to Hyde park, and a number of activists who moved around the city in groups, performing a mixture of non-violent direct actions (sit-ins, physically blocking shop entrances etc) and some targeted property damage (including graffiti, broken windows and paintballs). There were a few scuffles between individuals and police, but no major violence towards people.

Later in the evening a large number of people who had attended the rally went to Trafalgar Square, for a bit of an unofficial after party with music and more speeches. There was also a plan by some to set up a protest camp there, of a similar nature to the one on Parliament Square. Aside from a few bits of graffiti there was no trouble at all in this time, the two or three small campfires were kept well under control, there was lots of drinking but no violent drunks, and the crowd was altogether chilled. The police showed admirable common sense here, allowing the party to continue with little visible presence, though they were able to step in whenever someone crossed a line, such as spraying graffiti. Some of us set up tents and started preparing for the night.

As evening fell there were a few exoduses back and forth - mainly at Piccadilly, where protestors intended to surround a police kettle to help those inside escape before trouble flared up. The crowd was constantly being replenished by demonstrators from all over the city, but numbers stayed constant as those with family or work commitments left.

The mood changed when a column of police in riot gear charged through the crowd towards the clock. From my perspective on Nelson’s Column plinth, I couldn’t tell who started the fight but saw it escalate quickly and there was soon a brawl between the protestors and police in one area of the square.

Police seemed to take this as a cue to intervene all together, as soon vast numbers were surrounding the square, and then dividing the crowd up. People didn’t really put up a fight but there were a lot of refusals to move etc the police were extremely heavy handed with people who were not breaking the law, they were shoving rather than asking, and that put a lot of people’s backs up.

The separated groups were of very different character, because the area around Nelson’s Column had contained lots of the committed non-violent hippy types (me included) setting up the camp, whereas the National Gallery area contained most of the black-bloc anarchists who had marched victoriously round the city during the day.

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(Of course there was a crossover, lots of the campers were also black bloc, and many of the black blocs were also non-violent, but there was a strong distinction).

The result was that one police “kettle” was very quiet and a little pointless - we weren’t trying to leave anyway and were just a little frustrated at having a three-deep police guard around us as we went about our business.

The other group however was very volatile. Police containment techniques work because the police are willing to use more force to maintain them than the protestors are willing to use to escape - but that doesn’t apply to large groups of angry revolutionaries.

The result was that one police "kettle" was very quiet and a little pointless - we weren't trying to leave anyway and were just a little frustrated at having a three-deep police guard around us as we went about our business.

The other group however was very volatile. Police containment techniques work because the police are willing to use more force to maintain them than the protestors are willing to use to escape - but that doesn't apply to large groups of angry revolutionaries.

At the peaceful group we were contained for 5/6 hours, between around nine and the early hours of the morning. There were literally no attempts at forcing the lines open, though there was much questioning of the reasoning and aims of containing us in the first place. We soon retreated onto the platform of the Column, taking our tents with us, to the place where some inspired artist had taped a photograph of Nelson Mandela. Definitely a better role model and hero. From here we could hear and see the more confrontational group of protestors and police at the north east of the square, but we chose to remain true to our original plan of a peaceful sit-in, ignoring the armed escort.

Early on after starting the containment, some police tried to get us off the platform. My tent containing all my possessions was thrown (by police) onto the other side of the police lines and I was unable to collect it despite requesting politely to collect it and return or leave alone peacefully, whichever they preferred. They failed to clear the platform because in response to their very physical treatment (I climbed down as soon as I was asked, rather than shoved - but I still got lots of shoves as I scaled the high, slippery steps), other demonstrators were climbing up faster than they could remove us. Later, when we had neither been charged with any offence nor allowed to leave the area, most of us climbed back up.

Then, came a many-hour standoff in which we refused to respond violently to the provocations of the guarding police, instead challenging them verbally about their behaviour and ethics, or else ignoring them completely.

Many of the other group needed to leave, but most of us had been planning to stay the night anyway. They maintained their lines, not even acting until past 1am when they came forward to a metre or so around the podium, and officers began to forcibly pull individuals down.

With agreed ground rules of nonviolence, most of us refused when ordered to move ourselves, but didn’t put up a fight when manhandled. Some, including me, stubbornly refused to be dragged but climbed down ourselves when asked civilly.

I don’t know why they insisted on pulling us all down then, because there followed a long period of standing around, squashed in a corner where many people had been urinating, seemingly while the police decided what to do with us. They couldn’t charge us with anything because we’d not committed any crimes or even much disorder - but after all that performance with thousands of riot police they couldn’t just leave us either. In the end we were taken individually and photographed, then summarily arrested for Breach of the Peace, cuffed and bundled into minibuses in twos and threes, and dropped off in different parts of London, with instructions not to return or cause any more disorder (like sitting still in a public square).

I was lucky to be dropped off just on the other side of Westminster Bridge - I was able to wait a while for all the police and protestors to have been dispersed then return to try and salvage my possessions. The two people I was left with, both strangers, were less lucky - I’m a London-dweller but they were both totally lost. One was a visitor from Hull, who I guided back to Kings Cross after collecting my slightly broken tent and astonishingly still intact possessions inside, which had been abandoned for the street sweepers to remove. I say I was lucky, because a friend of the Hull-Ian, also not a Londoner, was left in Vauxhall with no cash, no idea where he was and at 2am on a Sunday.

I don’t know yet what happened to the other protest camp, which was being set up in Hyde Park.

I haven’t yet been able to get in touch with some of my friends but I have to assume they’re ok. I got in touch with my parents early this morning - they missed the worry of watching me being menaced by cops on live TV (they have seen it before) because they were on the coach back to the north east after attending the official march and rally. I haven’t seen much media yet, though I understand there’s a fair bit of “nasty anarchists spoiling lovely day, poor coppers getting cold while babysitting them”.

BBC Cameras near us got some good footage of three policemen dragging a woman (who was not committing a crime or being violent) down from the platform of Trafalgar Square, wonder if they’ll use it. If anyone got some photos of the travelling black bloc trooping through London, a revolutionary army with uniform and pennants high (even someone marching at the front twirling a large black flag for a while) they’ll make excellent scaremongering for the less reputable papers.

Everyone I talked to in the hours I couldn’t leave and the three or four before that when I could, was shocked but not surprised by the events of the evening. After months of student protests, we know how a significant number of police will act if they can. As soon as that riot visor goes down we’re less than animals, to be herded about and shoved and yelled at and catalogued and left in the cold. And arrested - I’d dearly love to know how many of those hundreds of arrests are 5-minute in-and-out jobs like mine, in which the person has committed no specific offence and it’s just a quick way to get rid of them and get their details too. We’re not going to let them win though. Direct action protesting works.

And to quote a really good song (“Bounce” by The Rub)- “If we can’t fix it up now then our children are going to have to suffer with what we fail to do today”.

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Dictum January 2011 |37

AGONY AUNT

Welcome to your Agony Aunt Say hello again to Share’ it Blare

Dear Germaphobic, the answer is Brillo pads, Fairy Liquid and Cilit-Bang. Or you could always move. On a more serious point, somebody does need to talk to him as this is something that will wreck his future. Jobs and training contracts are so competitive.

What about leaving magazines around with relevant articles, or some of you could discuss a (non existent) friend with the same problem?

Dear Agony Aunt, I will make it short and simple- I AM A FACEBOOK ADDICT! I am on it 24 hours 7 days a week (that is without any hint of exaggeration) and it worries me so much that it ruins my studies. HELP! – Facebook Geek Dear Geek, I have the perfect solution.

You need to ask one of the lecturers to come and work on your PC. Within minutes of her logging onto your computer every computer in the world that is online at the time will crash and never work again. Your problem will be solved. Or you could decide to log on to your PC and get on face book in that same lecturer’s class. The last time a student did that when she was teaching, the remains of that student were found six months later in a shallow grave in Epping Forest.

Dear Agony Aunt, I am a first year International Student. I have just been in London for 3 months and I really find it hard to adapt. My English is good but I really am the least social person in the world so I have no friends at all. My confidence is very low and I am very timid. I began to miss home and I cry at times when I feel alone. How can I enjoy my university? – Ms. Sunshine Dear Ms Sunshine, First of all look around you. At the University there are clubs and groups you could join.

You don’t need to be too official. Sometimes you could just pop along when things are going on and listen. You may get talking to someone.

You are not the only international student, we have lots of them. Have you been to the Undergraduate Office in Calcutta House and have a chat to your PAA, that is always a good place to start and she may have some ideas that will help you.

Dear Agony Aunt, I have a little secret and I know this is silly but I really fancy one of my seminar tutors! When I saw her, I was totally smitten! I always come prepared because I want to impress her. There is one time when I volunteered to answer the question, she smiled at me and I froze and was literally staring at her. It was embarrassing. I know this is inappropriate but how would I dictate my heart to stop?

– Hopeless Romantic Dear Hopeless Romantic. Good question.

Have you thought about making friends with someone of your own age who may be equally satiated with after class lust?

But to answer your question, you need to remember that some lecturers eat young innocent students for breakfast. It is of course possible that she may want you for your body, but that is a very dangerous road to go down. Remember the age gap. Most of our lecturers are over 80 years old and although age brings experience 90 years old is quite old no matter how fit she may be.

By the way, I am doing research on this and was wondering if you would be interested in meeting me in a little club I know. It’s quiet and very private with a nice hotel next door with lovely toiletries in their bathroom. Or so I am told.

Dear Agony Aunt, There is one girl I fancy at university. She is really nice and pretty. However, I just learned that she is dating my best mate.

I am torn into pieces but I really like her.

Please help. – At Lost Dear At Lost, This is a tricky one.

Are you sure she is actually dating him or are they just good friends? Females have a real ability to be good friends with males without falling for the sex drugs and rock and roll line. Also, how do you like her? How do you know that you yourself want anything more than good friendship? It is a really boring thing to say but friendship is really underrated. You could of course play the long game. Stay close being steadfast and loyal waiting for the day when she realises that you are the one, she has a fight with your friend and turns to you for support and bingo you’re in there.

It’s purely for academic purposes of course.

Dear Agony Aunt, There is this one guy from my class and he is nice and very friendly but there is one big problem, he has a terrible body odour! He keeps on sitting beside me and it really is annoying.

I am really not the type of person who is straightforward. What should I do? – Germaphobic

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Every problem gets a personal reply free of charge.

Email agonyaunt.dictum@gmail.com

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You will have built up a friendship that is solid and secure and will last and wild passion is the next thing.

This may not happen. She may stick with your friend and even marry him. But you will have acted like a decent person and you will build up your character. You will have learnt how to deal with tough situations and how to cope with things. Then some gorgeous female will see you and she will think ‘wow’ I want that bloke.

Of course you could always buy her flowers, take her to the pictures and compliment her at every chance and point out what a miserable mean bloke your friend is and you can make the earth move every time and steal her away from him. The question is, would that last or would she do to you what you have done to your friend and dumps you for the next best offer?

Dear Agony Aunt, I really find it hard to understand the accent of my lecturer. He is good but his accent is terrible. Is it me or the accent? – Rock Star Dear Rock Star, Hire an interpreter. I know some people who make a fortune translating and interpreting for people who come from the Sovereign state of Essex. The language of Essex, is English Jim but not as we know it. What do other people think? Is it him or is it you?

Is it possible that being a rock star has had an impact on your ears?

I said IS IT POSSIBLE THAT BEING A ROCK STAR HAS HAD AN IMPACT ON YOUR EARS? Anyway, have a chat to people and maybe see your GP. Dear Agony Aunt, I have been in a terrible fight with my best mate. We haven’t spoken in ages and I miss her to bits! She was like a sister to me but something happened in the past which ruined our friendship but I really want us to become friends again. I tried calling her but she is not answering her phone. Whenever I see her at uni, she avoids me. How can I win my best friend back? – Ms. Desperate Try the same approach I use in court: A full and frank admission of guilt. This should get you about a 1/3 off you sentence. Do you know what the fight was about? By that I mean do you know why you had fight? Sometimes people can argue but not really know why. You could try to get another person to help.

Not to get involved, but to ask her what the fight is about and how she feels about losing you. She may feel the same. You could be boring and send her flowers, or tell everyone how great she is and hope word gets back. Sometimes leaving things is the best. Give it time to settle down and let her miss you as much as you miss her. You can’t “win her back” as she is not a prize or a possession but you can let her know how much you feel and that you are there for her.

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BOOK REVIEW LLB Law: Core Subject book reviews (SECTION TITLE) Year 2: Substantive Law of the EU: Competition Law David Burton Competition Law,. Whish, R. (2008), 6th Ed. – “This book is written by one the leading authorities of Competition law in the world and although it expands beyond the needs of the Substantive EU module it will provide first class answers in relation to Articles 101 & 102 TFEU (Ex 81 & 82). Released pre-Lisbon this book features a slightly outdated article configuration however a new edition is scheduled for release in summer 2011”.

Best price found – £29.31 @ www.amazon.co.uk

Year 3: Company Law II David Burton Company Law,. French, D., Mayson, S., Ryan, C. (2010), 27th Ed. – “This book is incredibly well presented providing the user with detailed analysis of the subject matter in a comprehensive way, allowing all levels of reader to achieve first class grades through an enjoyable read ” Best price found – £28.69 @ www.waterstones.com

Year 3: Equity & Trusts David Burton Equity and Trusts,. Hudson, A. (2009), 6th Ed. – “First appearances may give a daunting impression due to the size and relatively complex structure however perseverance will provide the reader with an impressive in-depth knowledge of the subject matter. This textbook comes with companion online resources including podcasts provided by the author.”

Best price found – £26.90 @ www.amazon.co.uk

Year 3: Equity & Trusts David Burton Equity and Trusts,. Hudson, A. (2009), 6th Ed. – “First appearances may give a daunting impression due to the size and relatively complex structure however perseverance will provide the reader with an impressive in-depth knowledge of the subject matter. This textbook comes with companion online resources including podcasts provided by the author.”

Best price found – £26.90 @ www.amazon.co.uk

And if you have time... (SECTION TITLE) The Rule of Law by Tom Bingham David Burton “The late Lord Bingham identifies and explains the essential historical events and legislative characteristics that have allowed the rule of law to be recognised as fundamental for democratic success throughout the civilised world. This book is not aimed at lawyers so it provides a well rounded account of the worldwide events that have or may have impacted on the rule of law ranging from the signing of the Magna Carta through the abolition of slavery up until the recent ‘War on Terror’ and the legality of the War in Iraq. A must read.”

Best price found – £16.10 @ www.waterstones.com

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ALUMNI PAGE Full Name: Daniela Morich Course Taken at London Met: MA International Relations (2007) and LLM International Law (2008) (Sport scholarship student, playing guard for the women basketball team) Degree Class: Merit Current Job: Rule of Law Specialist - US State Department. Currently in Washington DC, training for her next assignment and will start working at the US Embassy in Kabul in August 2011.

Any other activities: Before joining the US State Department, Daniela worked for 3 years for the United Nations (UNDP, UNICEF, ITC-ILO), in Italy, Burundi and Brazil. She also briefly volunteered for couple of NGOs in London and Brazil.

1. Why have you decided to take up International Relations?

Quite simply, I wanted to pursue a career in international affairs. The MA in International Relations at London Met was, therefore, an ideal step in that direction. As I didn’t have a background in IR, its interdisciplinary approach was perfect as it links the study of international politics, economics and law. The combination provides you with a clear picture of global dynamics and the necessary tools to analyze and interpret it.

2. What made you decide to do LLM? International Law has always been one of my favourite subjects in school. I knew, however, that pursuing a career in this field would be extremely competitive. I thought then that I needed an extra qualification to differentiate myself from the rest – hence the LLM! I was also lucky enough to find an excellent women’s basketball team at London Met that allowed me to play as a scholarship student - this scholarship allowed me to complete my LLM program.

3. Why did you choose London Met and what for you is the best thing about London Met and how it helped you to reach where you are now?

Some of my favourite memories at London Met are the memories I formed as a player for the women’s basketball team! We were a great team, a group formed by people from all around the world. This international aspect is a central feature of London Met. You get the chance to meet, to study, to discuss, and to exchange experiences with a very international crowd! I think this is fantastic and it really expended my mind and the way I think!

4. Can you tell us more about your position as a “Rule of Law specialist” please?

I will be assigned to coordinate and support activities related to the Rule of Law and AntiCorruption Strategies at the Embassy. Working closely with international partners, we are helping to establish a strong Justice sector in Afghanistan.

5. What does it feel like working for the US State Department?

I’m very excited about this opportunity. I look forward to being in the field again and to working side by side with talented and experienced professionals.

6. What can you advise students regarding studies and careers?

Try to get as much experience as you can!

Don’t be scared to take unpaid jobs or internships, even (and especially!) when you are still in school. They are a great way to get a foot in the door, to make connections and to have a front line experience in a professional environment. If you want to pursue an international career, do learn one or more foreign languages – it is a very important asset! Italian is my mother language but I’m fluent in English, French, and Portuguese – and now I’m learning Dari.

Full Name: JOSE ANASTACIO DE SOUSA AGUIAR Course Taken at London Met: Master of Laws - Human Rights Year Graduated: 2009 Current Job: He is a federal public attorney and works for the Brazilian government as lawyer.

Any other activities: He has written some books in Brazil as “Questões Comentadas de Direito Administrativo”, “Questões Comentadas de Direito Constitucional”, “Família Aguiar: 7 Séculos de História”, “O Despertar para a Filosofia”.

1. Why did you choose London Met and what for you is the best thing about London Met and how it helped you to reach where you are now?

Well, first I have decided to study in London, because I thought at that time (and later I have confirmed it) that London was the best place to gain knowledge for many reasons, especially because the cultural, social and recreational facilities of one of the world’s greatest capital cities. After choosing London, I have looked for some universities and after a detailed analysis; I decided to choose LMU, especially because it’s stimulating learning environment and its academic excellence.

2. What made you decide to take up LLM (Human Rights)?

I can say that what made me decide to take up Master of Laws in Human Rights was the fact that I do like the theme and I realised that there are few people in my institution qualified in this area.

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So, after doing the master, I am able to contribute with my knowledge to the development of human rights in my country.

3. What do you think is the best thing about working as a federal public lawyer in Brazil? Can you please tell us more about the blog you have set up while studying at London Met? Working as a federal public lawyer in Brazil (Advocacia-Geral da União) is a challenging task, because we work with a whole range of activities, ranging from consultancy issues to acting in courts. We must be prepared to work in areas as civil, administrative, military and labour. The creation of our blog was a decision of a group of students of some London universities, like LMU, LSE and King’s College. The idea was to bring together students of some universities and create a room for us to write articles related to our activities and hobbies, and share experiences and ideas.

We set up the blog on 3 April 2009, and now there are 14 of us spread across four continents - living in countries as Brazil, USA, England, Netherlands, India and South Africa.

4. What are you currently working on?

I just recently released a book a few months ago called “Master of Laws: Human Rights at London Metropolitan University”, which were actually one of my written works that I have written whilst studying at London Met including the dissertation that was about “A Critical Appraisal of Child and Adolescent statute (ECA) 1990 and the Brazilian System and Policies Toward the Protection of Children’s Rights”

5. Do you have any advice to students with regards to their studies and professional careers?

I would say that they must pay attention to global issues, especially questions related to globalisation and geopolitical power; the transformation of world markets and new opportunities and problems for global business. Do not forget to keep in mind points related to comparative and interdisciplinary perspective.

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VOX PAGE

Unedited Law Student Testimonials Jasmin Atrafshan, 3rd Year LLB Student talks to students about their thoughts regarding their experience at London Met. Each one of us heard of various comments given by public authorities and newspapers regarding London Met´s financial status and its effect on its students, such as “The drastic culling of lecturers could lead to the destabilising of the university and the devaluing of its degrees” or “We are concerned that a reduction in staff might mean a reduction in the standard of the degrees that are being awarded, because there are obviously potential repercussions for students". What is written in the news, however, does often not reflect the actual situation of any student; thus, we feel it is important to show what the university has or has not to offer from the students’ perspective rather than the me-dia.

For, the best way to get to know the university is to ask for students testimonials, whether they are satisfied or unsatisfied with their course, faculty, the staff etc.

“I think that the lectures are good in general, but they need to put more stuff on web learn whereas for seminar, I think it should be longer and more interactive like if they can also introduces quiz on-line for that topic will help to improve. I like my course because I think law is straight forward and you learn most of your right and can stand up for them. The faculty is ok, but more information about career would be much better.”

Andi Hoxahj, Final Year LLB Law

“I believe that the LLB Law is a very helpful subject as you can learn your rights from it and the law itself. I am very happy that I’m doing LLB Law as it is a very strong element to have in the future. It gives you many opportunities for a good job. I can’t wait to be a professional lawyer and start my practice...I really want to spread the Law to everyone and help people with their problems.

I believe that the best thing in my law department is that most of the teachers are really helpful and close to us.”

Pavlina Messis, Final Year LLB Law

“The staff is really nice but it´s unfair that you are capped at 40% if you failed to sit an exam the first time.”

“Studying at London Met has made me develop many skills: from strengthening my communication with people from different cultures, boosting my confidence to approaching friendly lecturers who are easy to talk to on issues regarding the course and modules. As for the support, London Met has provided me with adequate facilities to graduate with a strong degree. I don’t expect to be spoon fed at any university in the world, so London Met has provided a good enough service in educating me. You can take a horse to the river, but you can’t make him drink the water.”

Ali Karem, Final Year LLB Law

“The skills I learnt were to be more independent and learnt to be able to make reports and my literacy skills have improved greatly. However, I don’t believe I get all the support I need as there are not enough books that I need available in the library and the lecturers can only do so much that is possi-ble.”

Barka Shabaa, Final Year LLB Law

“Staff needs more freedom to teach and to be allowed to continue with their ordinary duties; they should not treat students as if they were children. Majority of the tutors are good but you can´t get hold of them whenever you want. People who have children should get more support, not only finan-cially. They should be more considerate. However, Rob Murthwaite is good; Edwin Shorts and Shyamala are great. Regarding the university libraries, I do not even make use of them as they do not have enough books and resources.”

Anonymous, Final Year LLB Law

Anonymous, Final Year LLB Law

“Generally speaking I am happy to have all these amazing lecturers; especially EU Law Lecturer Anil Sinanan. He is great! I love the library facilities and the Open Language Programme. However, I think the price/service relation is not fair and more equipment with regard to working computers could be provided.

Kristina Murasva-Zawal, Final Year LLB

“I found that in the LLB seminar there should not be more than 10 people and there should be one to one session so that student can have the opportunity to understand more. I did not really find any-thing as “best” but it was alright. However I liked mostly the teaching method of Anil Sinanan and Alan Wilkinson’s recording idea was very good. I mostly missed one thing in our library that there are not enough books and the library is not open till late night which could help me a lot.”

Syed Rumman, LLB Law Graduate 2011

Obituary We are saddened to have lost a student of the faculty of the LGIR Michal Mazur who died last 11 January 2011. Michal, a Polish National studying International Relations at London Metropolitan University is well-loved by friends and classmates.

We would like to send the Dictum team’s deepest sympathy to his family in Poland and friends within the faculty. www.dictumlawmagazine.com

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BLOG PAGE

Rantings of a Madman O

kay so first of all, I would like to apologise to my editor James. He asked me to write this about 3 weeks ago but I’ve been so busy trying to work on my dissertation that I forgot. As a result, I’m now writing this from a hotel room in San Francisco so that I can send it to him before this issue goes to print. Sorry James!

So I’m halfway through the final semester now and trying to write my dissertation. I don’t think that I have actually read so much ever. I’ve spent so much time hidden behind a large pile of books, trying to get a good start on it that I’ve neglected my other work. This is something that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. I can’t stress how important time management is! Normally I have been able to manage but I’m currently starting to feel that I am drowning slightly in university work. The amount of work which I have brought with me is actually ridiculous!

I have also now drawn up a study plan which I aim to stick to.

For those critics out there who are saying that I shouldn’t go on holiday during term time, all I can say is get real. Try booking holidays which coincide with school breaks and then compare the prices to outside the breaks. You save hundreds by going during term time. This isn’t the best idea but it is my first holiday in 2 years as I don’t live off the ‘bank of mum and dad’. I work and I save, and sometimes we all just need a break from university work. I’ve spoken to many lecturers over the last year while being part of Dictum and one of the major common themes is the lack of work life balance in university life today. We work hard during the term and over weekends and then when it comes to the holidays, we take books home with us and use them to study.

We rarely actually take the opportunity to get out of London even if it just for the day and relax. We need to time to ‘recharge’.

I’m not trying to advocate taking an entire week off, but take some time just relax.

Law is incredibly heavy and I know that the stress makes a lot of people ill so take some time to just stop. Go away for the weekend somewhere or just spend the day enjoying the sun in the park but take some time for yourself.

Your mark will be capped at 40, but a 40 is better than a 30. Go see the subject lecturer even if you got a high mark and see where you did really well or really badly. If you got a good mark, this will enable you to repeat the performance, and if you did badly it will tell you where you need to improve on with exam skills. Often we know what we want to write and how to answer the question but it just doesn’t come across properly.

Speak to your lecturer about your results and they will be able to give you exam tips.

Don’t forget to do mock questions and formative assessments as well. These do not count towards your results but will give you an indication of how you are doing on the course and where you need to improve on.

Finally, I would just like to say congratulations to all those who were elected during the recent Student Union elections. Turnout was 12% which is good but could be a lot better. We need to stand up and use our voice! Have your say on how this university works. Stand up and be proud of where you are and use your voice and don’t sit back in complacency. Your voice is the most important tool you will ever have! So use it! Well done to everyone who took part even if you didn’t get elected. You all did a great job.

This is my last post as I hopefully graduate this year so good luck with your exams guys.

Take care.

Gordon (T.F)

Also, results are out now so congratulations to those of you who did well. For any of you who failed an exam, don’t panic, it is not the end of the world. As long as you turned up to the exam you can resit it in the summer.

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EDITORIAL BOARD Dictum Student Magazine Faculty of Law, Governance and International Relations Editorial Team Associate Editors Gordon Nixon and Steven Robinson

Chief Editor Kristoffer James M. Canlas Features Editor Kamila Jafri Writers & Contributors Jasmin Atrafshan Hannah Appuhn Anita Da Ros Carolin Albrecht Salan Forster Ricky O’Brien

News Editor Gabriele Ruberto

Incoming Chief Editor David Burton

Augustas Jankauskas Jenny Bloom Adam Brodalski Saneeha Malik Ayodeji Oladimeji Ian Clarke Megan Elizabeth Warren Jade Fitzgerald Daniela Gorza Isabelle Trick

Guest Writers The Rt. Hon the Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe Edwin Shorts Lesley Neenan Chris Monaghan Dita Gill Neelam Thapar Yeashir Ahmed

Careers Editors Mohammad Akbar(2 Issues) Fazl Buchari(Present)

Advisers Lesley Neenan Edwin Shorts Nigel Toft

Layout and Design Kristian Jasper M. Canlas

We are a well established firm with offices in Tonbridge and Sevenoaks in Kent. We have experienced lawyers who specialise in the following areas: • divorce, family, children and mediation • property both commercial and residential • dispute resolution for both companies and individuals • private client, taxation, wills and trusts • company commercial including IT, commercial agreements, data protection We can be contacted on either 01732 770660 or 01732 747900. _____________________ Claire Manning Partner Solicitor- Residential Property For and on behalf of Warners Law LLP

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Printer London Met Enterprises Ltd. Print Centre 81A Benwell Road, London N7 7BW Tel: 02071332023 Fax: 020771332091 Photo credits: All photos Courtesy of their respective owners.

All rights Reserved.

To join Dictum on Facebook: http://www.facebook. com/home.php?#!/group. php?gid=153976581283562 Website: www.dictumlawmagazine.com Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/DictumLMet#

Copyright Š 2011. No part of this publication may be reproduced or altered by any means including photocopying without prior consent of Dictum. This is subject to the exception of photocopying by careers adviser or lecturer. All items so used should be fully acknowledged.

The views expressed in articles are those of the authors and their publication does not necessarily imply that such views are shared by the Faculty of LGIR or by London Metropolitan University. Whilst every care has been taken in the compilation of this publication, the publishers cannot accept responsibility for any inaccuracies or for consequential loss arising from such inaccuracies, or for any loss, direct or consequential, arising in connection with information in this publication.

Comments and Suggestions: email editor.dictum@gmail.com or visit www.dictumlawmagazine.com Dictum would like to thank the RT. Hon The Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Emily Goodhand, Chris Monaghan, Dita Gill, Mike Meehan, Mark Blakely, Neelam Thapar, Yeasher Ahmed, Husnara Begum, Vice-Chancellor Malcolm Gillies, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Peter McCaffery, the Print Centre, to the Faculty of LGIR and to the Sttudents’ Union. Our advisers Edwin Shorts, Lesley Neenan and Nigel Toft for their invaluable contribution and support to make Dictum Student Law Magazine possible.