Features

The Bar Council needs not only to support the Bar but also to help it be understood by and to reflect the society it serves.   

Stephen Crowne talks to Rupert Jones about his role as Bar Council Chief Executive. 

To legislate or not to legislate?   

As the year draws to a close, Mark Hatcher reviews events in Parliament 

As her tenure comes to an end, Baroness Deech reflects upon her six years as Chair of the Bar Standards Board.  

In To Kill a Mockingbird, the great Harper Lee wrote: “there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal – there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution gentlemen, is a court…” 

The 2014 Annual Bar Conference took place on 8 November.  

Counsel’s editorial board reports back. 

Mark Hoyle, who is now a partner at King & Wood Mallesons SJB in Dubai, organised a dinner for Barristers in the Gulf, on 28 May 2014.   

There was an excellent selection of people, mostly from Dubai but also a one day tripper from Qatar. 

Christmas Legal Fiction roundup for Counsel Magazine by Paul Magrath.  

Books discussed: 

Ian McEwan, The Children Act (Cape, £16.99) 

Peter Murphy, A Matter for the Jury (No Exit Press, £8.99) 

Kathy Lette, Courting Trouble (Bantam, £14.99) 

Nick Stone, The Verdict (Sphere, £16.99) 

The world has watched over the past several months as Oscar Pistorius has been tried for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp. Sean Middleton reports.  

Debates have ranged far and wide over Oscar’s innocence or guilt, and whether he should be found guilty of murder or culpable homicide. With the verdict now in hand we all know that it is one of culpable homicide (manslaughter). Much criticism has been levelled against both Counsel and the Bench over the course of the proceedings and there seem to be more critics than legal experts. 

What if Pistorius had been tried in London? - asks Ian Glen QC.  

Bail would have been out of the question. Without bail there would be no photo opportunities before the Court sat and no family embraces. The case would come on for trial at the Old Bailey within about nine months of the offence and the trial would take about three weeks. The trial could not be televised. Sentencing would normally take twenty minutes immediately after the verdict with the jury remaining to watch. Murder by shooting is punished by a mandatory life sentence with 30 years to serve before consideration of parole. Simple. 

Catherine Baksi delves into the debate on having a non-lawyer as Lord Chancellor.  

The bête noire of many in the legal profession, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Chris Grayling, courted controversy last week declaring he saw no “disadvantages” in the former role being held by a non-lawyer. 

Who will pay for off-road vehicle accidents, asks Sarah Crowther.  

In Vnuk v Zavarovalnica Triglav d.d, Case C-162/13 o n 13 August 2007, Mr Vnuk was working in a farmyard, on a ladder, when the ladder was struck by a trailer coupled to a tractor reversing across the yard in order to deliver hay bales to the nearby barn.