Features

A digital case revives tragic memories  

'It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lighteneed the day's toil of any human being' – John Stuart Mill 

With the triggering of Art 50 imminent, Mark Hatcher examines preparations in Westminster and Whitehall, with a white paper providing some comfort to the Bar  

Tucked away behind the Old Treasury Building at No 9 Downing Street is the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU).  

The Bar is in danger of losing its distinct legal heritage, warns Clare Cowling – who outlines the considerable research value to be found in chambers records  

Counsel interviews The Secret Barrister, who started out as a counterweight to media misinformation and is the third legal commentator in a row named Independent Blogger of the Year (Comment Awards 2016)  

Where did the inspiration come from for the blog? 

Fees are still too low, but the Bar has developed a better settlement for criminal practitioners to reward advocacy in a fairer and more transparent way. Now it’s up to the profession to make their voices heard and respond to the consultation, as Daniel Oscroft explains  

Ask most criminal barristers to tell you if there is a future at the criminal Bar and you will be told, ‘No’.  

Jonathan Fisher QC and Anita Clifford discuss their recent experiences in Albania where they led a workshop on the challenges presented by tax evasion and money laundering in a transitional economy  

Working in London, as policymakers proceed with implementing the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (‘4MLD’), it is easy to lose sight of the challenges experienced by transitioning democracies in the fight against financial crime.  

HHJ Simon Drew QC and Lynda Gibbs explain why the pan-profession s 28 and ‘advocacy and the vulnerable’ training – being delivered to over 14,000 criminal advocates over the next two years – heralds a sea change  

Twenty-seven years ago, the Pigot Committee proposed a mechanism to allow for the whole of a young child’s evidence to take place out of court, in advance.  

The Supreme Court’s treatment of the devolution issues in Miller is troubling, argues Aidan O’Neill QC, who examines the UK’s complex multi-national constitutional history and potential impact on the devolved political constitution  

Miller reveals the malleability of the parliamentary sovereignty doctrine, argues Professor Mark Elliott in his examination of the many tensions which lie at the heart of the majority judgment  

There are few aspects of the modern British constitution that the Supreme Court’s judgment in Miller does not at least engage (R (on the application of Miller and Dos Santos) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union and associated references  [2017] UKSC 5).  

Damian Hickman offers an insight into the challenges of running a busy international arbitration centre –from debugging services, extra-large entourages and last-minute visa requests  

Writing in the Global Arbitration Review in May 2016, J William Rowley QC emphasised that ‘the importance of excellent, purpose-built arbitration hearing facilities cannot be over-estimated in the choice of… seat’.