Criminal

house of lords
 
Peers have urged the Government to opt-in to a new draft Directive on the Proceeds of Crime.

Job title : Silk, Guildhall Chambers, Bristol

Christopher Quinlan QC practises from Guildhall Chambers, Bristol as a member of the Sports Law team. Guildhall Chambers was recently voted “Chambers of the Year” by Legal Week. Its 73 members (including 7 silks) offer expertise from within specialist teams also covering crime, commercial, employment, insolvency, personal injury & clinical negligence and property.

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. 

Criminal

The Bar Council and Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have played a leading role in a project to produce an accessible factsheet for defendants in criminal proceedings. 

Criminal injuries

People with unspent criminal records could be barred from making claims to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme unless there are exceptional circumstances, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has said. Convicted criminals could also be ordered to fund victims’ support services. The proposals are subject to a consultation, “Getting it right for victims and witnesses”, which is due to end on 22 April 2012.

John Cammegh looks at the the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal and asks: Reconciliation - or revenge?  

The development of international criminal tribunals over the last 20 years owes much to the maxim “No Peace Without Justice”. But there can be no peace without a winner: it is the winner’s privilege both to dispense the justice and write the history in the aftermath of any conflict. 

Iain Morley QC looks at the Special Tribunal and how it is helping end political assassination in Lebanon.  

On 14 February 2005, at 12.55hrs, in downtown Beirut, the largest-ever bomb in peacetime was detonated as the motorcade of Rafiq Bahaa El Din Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, passed at speed. It killed Hariri, eight members of his convoy, 13 members of the public, and injured 231 others. The explosion was so large it created a 10m crater and an atomic-style mushroom plume. 

Stephen Akinsanya explains how some lateral thinking - and an ipad2 - saved the day, time and money in a criminal court . 

It was the moment that every defence counsel dreads; a returned trial on a Friday and the discovery, as you read the brief, that a key defence witness was a Lance Corporal serving with the Royal Lancashire Regiment who had been flown to Cyprus prior to taking up duties in Afghanistan. 

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. 

criminal law

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has improved its prosecution rates in violent offences against women and girls.
In the four years since 2006-07, the number of prosecutions rose 38 per cent from just under 69,000 to 95,000 and the level of convictions was maintained, according to its Violence against Women and Girls Crime Report for 2010-11.