This professional service draws attention to current and important items of news
 and members are directed to the hosts' websites

Electronic copies of this information may be obtained from our librarians at help@lawlibrary.co.za or click on the underlined hyperlink where relevant

United Kingdom

Banking

Britain planning tax raid on banks : report  - 20 October
Britain is drawing up plans for a tax raid on banks that could help pay the cost of the government's bail-out of the financial system, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported. Among the moves being considered by ministers is a one-off windfall tax on profits, the newspaper said. It cited unidentified finance sources who said a similar tax had been imposed in 1981. - Business Report website

Correctional Services

Calls to scrap short jail terms - 6 October
Prison sentences of less than a year should be abolished because they do not work, prison governors will hear at their annual conference later. The Prison Governors' Association (PGA) is proposing a motion which says short-term sentences do not reform criminals, and contribute to record overcrowding. Some 65 000 out of 100 348 prisoners sentenced in 2008 were given sentences of 12 months or under. - BBC News website

Courts

Supreme Court hears first appeal - 5 October
The first hearing in the new UK Supreme Court is a challenge to government powers to create laws without a vote in Parliament, it has been argued. Five men suspected of financing terrorism claim a Treasury freeze on their assets breaches their rights. Tim Owen QC said the case involved "fundamental constitutional issues" about ministers making laws without parliamentary debate or scrutiny. - BBC News website

How Bloody Sunday helped to future-proof the Supreme Court's IT - 1 October
For the first time in any court in England and Wales, the public are about to see justice in action - rather than rely for their knowledge of the justice system on dramas or footage from the United States. When the Supreme Court opens this week, it will have broadcasting facilities and other IT that make it the UK's most technologically advanced court. In all three courtrooms, there are four fixed cameras to record all proceedings for display on large monitors in the exhibition area. A protocol is in place with broadcasters to provide materials for news and documentaries and, in sensitive cases, procedures to safeguard the anonymity of those involved. These filming arrangements are unique in courts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, where cameras have by statute been banned. - Times Online website

Queen Elizabeth II opens new UK Supreme Court - 16 October
Queen Elizabeth II formally opened Britain's new Supreme Court on Friday in a ceremony attended by high court justices from the United States and around the world. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and top judges from Canada, Australia, India, South Africa and Europe attended the ceremony for a court the government says will make the workings of justice visible and accessible to the British public. US Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer and Antonin Scalia watched the ceremony, which included prayers led by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and a verse for the new court by former poet laureate Andrew Motion. - Law.com website

Judges unsure about prefab courts - 10 October
Judges have voiced concerns about plans to build prefabricated courtrooms next to a court that hears high profile terrorism and organised crime trials. BBC News has learned that the portable units will be assembled in a car park at London's Woolwich Crown Court. More space is needed because caseloads have risen in England and Wales. - BBC News website

Judge stuns courtroom by telling ASBO yob he 'deserved good kicking from victim's sons' - 15 October
A judge stunned a courtroom when he told an ASBO thug he 'deserved a good kicking' for punching a woman police officer's private car. Speaking off-the-cuff, Judge Anthony Scott-Gall told binge-drinking Dexter Vidal he was 'not surprised' the WPC's two grown-up sons had confronted him in the street after he attacked their family car. 'If someone punched my car then I would make sure, if I had two sons, that he was given more of a good kicking". But the judge added : 'Possibly not having regard to the job one holds down'. After dealing with the case a sentencing hearing at Lewes Crown Court, the judge turned to the press box and said : 'Lest the press think the judge conducts a vigilante campaign against people that terrorise his neighbourhood and his car, he doesn't and they haven't - and I have one son, not two'. - Mail Online website

Criminal Justice System

Al Megrahi is alive and well - 22 October
The family of the Libyan citizen Abdulbaset Al-Megrahi has denied that he had died and said reports in some British media outlets today are totally incorrect, and that he is doing fine. - The Tripoli Post website

Megrahi lawyer seeks Sky apology after 'death' broadcast - 22 October
The Lockerbie bomber's lawyer last night called for an apology from the satellite broadcaster Sky News after it reported that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi had died. Tony Kelly said he had spoken to his client yesterday afternoon in the minutes after Sky had reported that Megrahi had passed away. The report, which aired at about 4pm, was quickly altered to include Kelly's denial. - Scotsman website

Environment

Ivorian dumping report published - 19 October
A scientific report into the dumping of toxic waste in Ivory Coast by oil trading company Trafigura has been released to the public. The report concerns illnesses suffered by thousands of Abidjan locals. - BBC News website

See also : Guardian gagged from reporting parliament

Gender Issues

Equality laws backfire - 19 October
Equality legislation is making it more difficult for women to get a foothold in Britain's financial services industry, a fund manager at JO Hambro Capital told members of parliament in London last week. Nichola Pease, the deputy chairman of the private client fund manager, said that companies were scared away from hiring women because penalties for successful sex discrimination claims are unlimited and the UK offers 52 weeks of maternity leave. - Business Report website

Human Rights

Human Rights Act defended by DPP - 21 October
The Human Rights Act is not a "criminals' charter", the Director of Public Prosecutions has said. The rights enshrined in the act were "basic, fundamental, and so much part of our way of life that we take them for granted," Keir Starmer said. The law does protect the rights of victims of crime, he said in the public prosecution annual lecture in London. The Conservatives want to scrap the act, saying it puts the rights of criminals before those of communities. - BBC News website

Land Affairs and Property

Legal risk to property investors - 9 October
Investors hit by the downturn who choose not to complete property deals can still be forced to buy after court orders, lawyers have warned. Many buyers who agreed to purchase city apartments being built in the boom now find values have plunged or have difficulty in finding a mortgage deal. Some wrongly believe they risk only their deposit by pulling out after exchanging contracts. But lawyers said the legal obligation to complete the transaction was clear. - BBC News website

Media

Guardian gagged from reporting parliament - 12 October The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights. Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found. The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret. The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations. - Guardian website The man who invented the London libel industry - 13 October The London law firm famous for helping clients as diverse as Sir James Goldsmith, Sir Elton John and Kevin Keegan deal with "intrusive and hostile" media inquiries down the years is back in the news - and this time it appears to have surpassed itself. The firm is Carter-Ruck, whose founder was Peter Carter-Ruck, credited with inventing Britain's modern libel industry. For nearly 50 years he was the scourge of Private Eye and, at one time or another, virtually every newspaper in Fleet Street. As a former colleague memorably put it after Carter-Ruck's death in 2003, "He did for freedom of speech what the Boston Strangler did for door-to-door salesmen". - The First Post website Guardian gagging order sparks Twitter frenzy - 13 October The Guardian has been prevented from reporting a question from an MP in parliament, sparking a vociferous campaign on the internet. The only hint as to where the action originated comes in the name of the lawyers requesting it : Carter Ruck. That clue has led journalists to bookmark a question from Paul Farrelly MP : "To ask the secretary of state for justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura". Carter Ruck act as lawyers for Trafigura, which was hit by negative headlines in the summer after it settled a case involving the dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast. - politics website Twitter outcry over Guardian gagging order - 13 October News that the Guardian has been blocked from reporting parliamentary proceedings for the first time in memory has sparked an instant campaign on Twitter. Thousands of tweets appeared expressing anger after the newspaper's editor revealed on Tuesday the paper had been hit by a wide-ranging injunction preventing it from reporting a question from an MP to a minister published in a Commons order paper. - inthenews website MPs protest as press banned from reporting parliamentary question - 13 October The Liberal Democrats have called for an urgent debate on press freedom in the Commons after The Guardian claimed it was banned from reporting a parliamentary question. Jack Straw, the Lord Chancellor, is facing calls to answer questions about what the newspaper called a "Kafkaesque" court order. - Telegraph website Guardian seeks urgent court hearing over parliament reporting gag - 13 October Editor Alan Rusbridger seeks court appearance over ban as Liberal Democrats table urgent question in Westminster. - Guardian website Guardian hails free speech victory - 13 October The law firm that gained an injunction preventing the Guardian from publishing an MP's question in parliament has caved in, the newspaper has revealed. Writing on Twitter, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger thanked fellow users for their "fantastic support". - inthenews website When is a secret not a secret? - 13 October When is a secret not a secret? When it's on Twitter. In one sense, the injunction was effective. In most of the mainstream media this morning, you would have found no mention of who or what was involved. No injunction was served on the BBC, but ever since the Spycatcher case in the 1980s news organisations which knowingly breach an injunction served on others are in contempt of court, so the corporation too felt bound by the Guardian injunction. But the lawyers in this case clearly reckoned without the "blogosphere". In the anarchic, anything-goes world of the internet, where free speech is a frequently-heard rallying cry, injunctions banning publication of anything are unpopular. This one seems to have acted like a red rag to a bull. - BBC News website PM asked to act on gagging orders - 14 October Gordon Brown has been asked to look at what can be done about legal bids to stop journalists reporting that gagging orders are in place. The PM said he hoped to "clear up what is an unfortunate area of the law". On Tuesday an order temporarily stopped the Guardian reporting details of an MP's parliamentary question. Tory MP Peter Bottomley said the order should never have been granted and he intended to report law firm Carter-Ruck to the Law Society for seeking one. - BBC News website See also : Minton report : Trafigura toxic dumping along the Ivory Coast broke EU regulations, 14 Sep 2006 http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23trafigura  Ivorian dumping report published

Privacy

Police win data deletion appeal - 19 October
Five police forces which challenged a ruling that they should delete records on criminal convictions from their database have won their appeal. The court of appeal said convictions, however old and however minor, can be of value in the fight against crime. The court said that as a result the retention of that information should not be denied to the police. The forces said if they had lost, they may have been forced to delete details of as many as one million people. - BBC News website

Scotland

Scottish government publishes plans to protect tenants on repossession - 9 October
Proposals to protect unauthorised tenants where a property is being repossessed were published today. Changes relate to a landlord letting out a property, without informing the lender, in breach of a mortgage agreement. In the event of repossession of a property, any unauthorised tenants have limited rights. It is estimated that up to 300 households a year are affected. - eGov Monitor website

InfoUpdate : an Information Service supplied by the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society