Blog
Private prosecutions – A route to justice for the charity sector
Sophie Tang
5 April 2018
Tongue splitting, ear removal and branding - the limits of consent as a defence to extreme body modification
Split ‘lizard’ tongues, tattooed eyeballs, genital beading and ear shaping are just a handful of unconventional body modification procedures people undergo in the UK every day. In March 2018, the Court of Appeal found that certain body modification procedures did in fact amount to serious harm and wounding, and that the customer’s consent could not amount to a defence for causing these ‘injuries’. In light of this, practitioners currently carrying out these procedures may need to revaluate their practises.
4 April 2018
The Data Protection Bill - New Criminal Offences for Data Protection Breaches On Their Way to the Statute Book
The Data Protection Bill (“the Bill”) was described in the Queen’s speech of June 2017 as a new law to ensure ‘that the United Kingdom retains its world-class regime protecting personal data’. It supplements and bolsters the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the directly effective EU regulation on Data Protection coming into force in May.
29 March 2018
Youth Justice Part One: Criminalising kids - a guide to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act for young people
In this first blog in a mini-series on youth justice, we provide a a brief guide to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act for young people. This includes addressing the issues of how long criminal records need to be disclosed for and the impact on applying for employment or further education, filtering rules for criminal records certificates and recent developments.
15 March 2018
DPP consent in private prosecutions
Private prosecutions, once a “historical right” that was “rarely exercised” (according to Lord Wilberforce in Gouriet v Union of Post Office Workers (1978)), are now thoroughly integrated into our criminal justice system. Whether the result of dwindling CPS resources (see blog by David Sleight CPS and police struggle under the load of sex abuse investigations) or because of the public’s increased familiarity with the process from high-profile convictions such as ‘King Con’ or the Surfthechannel pirate, the number of private prosecutions being brought is on the rise.
14 March 2018
Irish ruling on Polish extradition request has potentially far-reaching consequences for EAW scheme
An Irish judge’s ruling in an extradition case has called into question Poland’s continued participation in the EAW scheme, and perhaps even its role in the EU as a whole.
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