Reviews

A. Hayden QC, HHJ J. Penna, M. Allman, S. Greenan, E. Latvio
ISBN: 978 1 84661 319 7
March 2012
Publisher: Jordan Publishing
Price: £55

Children and same sex families (Family Law, Jordan Publishing 2012) by Anthony Hayden QC, Marisa Allman, Sarah Greenan, Elina Nhinda-Latvia and Judge Jai Penna highlights the many complexities which arise from same sex couples becoming parents.  The very meaning of parenthood is being re-evaluated in courts dealing with same sex couples, especially if such couples have an arrangement with a sperm donor or a surrogate mother. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (HFEA 2008) does away with the old presumption that a biological parent is, in fact, a legal parent, as the book’s fascinating chapter on parenthood shows in detail.  

Privacy and libel law: the clash with press freedom
Paul Tweed
ISBN: 978 1 84766 902 5
May 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury Professional
Price: £19.99

Privacy injunctions and the media: a practice manual
Iain Goldrein QC
ISBN: 9781849462846
April 2012
Publisher: Hart Publishing
Price: £125.00 

2012 brings forth two new books which share a concern with the relationship between individual privacy and the press, a relationship which (to adapt HL Mencken) is broadly akin to that between lamppost and dog. They are Paul Tweed’s Privacy and libel law: the clash with press freedom (Bloomsbury Professional) and Iain Goldrein QC’s Privacy injunctions and the media: a practice manual (Hart).  

One thousand vessels sailed past the Queen on the Thames to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee. Max Hardy was on one of them...   

In 1612, barristers sailed down the Thames on the royal barge, accompanied by small boats and by musicians, in order to perform a masque in honour of the marriage of James I’s daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Four hundred years later, I took part in a similar ceremony to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Princess Elizabeth’s namesake and descendant. 

The annual Kalisher Fund evening took place in May, playing to a packed audience in Middle Temple Hall. Counsel’s David Wurtzel was there Barristers are justly proud of the pro bono work they do to support new entrants at the Bar. Likewise, our colleagues in the acting profession have generously donated their time in the cause of raising money to help young lawyers whose fictional counterparts they have sometimes played.  

These are the inspirations behind the annual “Kalisher Event” which this year took place on May 20, when a packed audience gathered in Middle Temple Hall. They were treated to a performance of ‘Murder on Air’, a double bill of Agatha Christie radio plays. 

At a time of universal celebrations for the bicentenary of Dickens’s birth, Victoria Kastner suggests how best to enjoy the great man’s works 

During his bicentennial year, when worldwide praise for Charles Dickens threatens to reach its saturation point, there is a simple way to rediscover his genius. Read his novels aloud. The distance between his era and ours vanishes when we speak his words. Starting with The Pickwick Papers in 1836 and ending with Our Mutual Friend in 1864, Dickens wrote fourteen complete novels in twenty-eight years. This astonishing accomplishment represents only a small percentage of the eight million words he produced in his lifetime. As journalist, essayist, correspondent, and playwright as well as novelist, Dickens was so prolific that almost no one has read his entire oeuvre. Within this torrent of exceptional prose, he reserved his finest efforts for his novels. Today the general public regards them as the sole source of his fame. Dickens created each of these fourteen works with a perception we have since largely forgotten: the majority of his readers were in fact not readers at all, but listeners. 

Paul Marshall reflects on a recent conversation between Channel 4’s Jon Snow and law reporter turned novelist, Elenor Dymott. 

Easter is not a bad time to recall the question Pontius Pilate is reported as having asked: ‘’what is truth?”. Jesting Pilate would not stay for an answer, says Francis Bacon. It is not clear whether Pilate’s reluctance to enter into further debate on the question was attributable more to judicial impatience or intellectual humility. The narrower issue of truth as to disputed fact, that the trial process is believed to facilitate, may not be straightforward. Lord Justice Browne commented: 

Toby Craig prepares for the London Marathon and asks members of the Bar also taking part how they have fitted training around their busy working lives. 

As a child, I spent more than one April morning on the Embankment cheering my dad through another of his five London Marathons. Last year, after a rather long hiatus, I was a spectator once again, this time watching my older brother compete. It’s fair to say that joggers run in my family.  This year, the gauntlet well and truly laid down, it’s finally my turn to tackle the daunting 26.2 miles of the most famous marathon course in the world. A subjective view perhaps, but as far as I’m concerned, New York, Chicago, Berlin and even Marathon to Athens itself have their attractions, but nothing beats London. 

Adrian Eissa and Ruth Barber
ISBN: 978 1 84766 707 6. September 2011
Publisher: Bloomsbury Professional. Price: £75

Even barristers of the very near future will look back with astonishment that their predecessors were still, in the 21st century, laden with kilos of textbooks as they set off for court in the morning.  Any exceptionally diligent criminal practitioner embarking for a confiscation hearing faces the Herculean prospect of dragging Archbold 2012 with supplement and Mitchell, Taylor and Talbot on Confiscation and Proceeds of Crime behind them.  Punishment not just for the muscles but also for the bank balance with RRPs of £455 and £342 respectively. 

Stephen Mason, Barrister, with a team of international contributors
Publisher LexisNexis. Price: £178.21
ISBN/ISSN: 9781405749121. April 2010

Paper is terribly last millennium. Relevant material now regularly exists on servers, laptops, mobile telephones and a whole variety of gadgets. Pressure for electronic service and presentation of cases is coming from a variety of sources, such as the CPS’ digital drive starting this April. For counsel to advise properly, there is a need to understand the workings of these little black boxes, not only so that challenges can be made but also so that such technology can be used to best present one’s case.  

Child trafficking continues. Felicity Gerry reviews “Not My Life”, a film exposing this brutal world and hoping to bring about change. 

Not My Life is a brutal documentary about modern day slavery. It exposes the reality of human trafficking across continents, asks why such activities take place and what can be done. The international premiere took place at Curzon Mayfair on Thursday 20th October 2011 and the full documentary was shown on CNN International without ad breaks over the following weekend. Oscar-nominated director Robert Bilheimer hopes that the film can be a catalyst for change, putting the plight of the world’s youth in the forefront of the public consciousness.