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Banking

Bank Governor wants clarity over privatising banks and repaying debt - 18 June
Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, told the Chancellor last night to make clear the schedule for privatisation of Britain's state-controlled banks, devise a plan for paying back the national debt and beef up powers to police lenders. The Bank needed much greater powers to regulate financial institutions, he said. - Times Online website

Mervyn King presses his case to limit size of banks - 18 June
The Governor of the Bank of England put himself on a collision course with the Government and the City again last night by laying out radical plans for clamping down on banks. Mervyn King said that he wanted a restriction on the size of banks and that investment banks might have to be split from retail banks. In his annual speech at Mansion House before an audience of bankers and other City grandees, he said that banks should not be allowed to grow so large that they were deemed too big to fail. - Times Online website

Banks 'face deluge of litigation' - 24 June
Banks face an "appalling prospect" if the Office of Trading is allowed to rule that overdraft charges are unfair, the House of Lords has been told. The banks would receive a deluge of litigation if the decision was made against them, the court has heard. Five Law Lords are hearing an appeal by seven banks and one building society against judgements by two lower courts. The lenders are challenging the right of the Office of Fair Trading to decide if overdraft charges are fair or not. - BBC News website

Courts

First criminal trial without a jury approved - 18 June
A criminal trial is to go ahead without a jury for the first time in England and Wales in 400 years after a historic ruling by the Court of Appeal today. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, and two other judges in London gave the go-ahead because of the danger of members of any jury being targeted. The case, Lord Judge said, concerns very serious criminal activity” arising out of an armed robbery at a warehouse at Heathrow Airport in 2004 aimed at seizing £10 million. In the event the robbers seized £1.75 million The robbery has already given rise to three trials at a total cost of £22 million. - Times Online website

Jewish school broke race laws by refusing boy whose mother had converted - 26 June
A leading Jewish state school broke race laws by refusing to admit a boy whose mother had converted to the religion, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. JFS, formerly the Jewish Free School, is highly oversubscribed and has turned away several pupils for not meeting its criteria of Jewishness. Previous court hearings have supported its stance. Yesterday, however, the court ruled in favour of the parents of a boy named only as M. - Times Online website

Mau Mau veterans claim compensation over 'lost decade' - 23 June
Five elderly Kenyans will sue the British Government today for a lost decade of alleged torture, suppression and humiliation under Britain's colonial rule of Kenya more than half a century ago. If successful, the case could cost Britain millions of pounds by paving the way for thousands of other surviving members and sympathisers of the Mau Mau uprising to file similar claims. A leading expert warned, though, that the veterans faced difficulties in holding Britain responsible for the alleged atrocities, which include rape and castration. David Anderson, a Professor of African politics at Oxford University, said that he feared the case was being "driven by politics and money". He said that the Government will argue that legal responsibility was passed to the Kenyan authorities after independence in 1963. - Times Online website

Mau Mau claim will be fought every step of the way - 23 June
The British do not use torture. At least, that has always been the official line, but as we square up to the realities of our past in the colonies and beyond, it is becoming an increasingly difficult line to hold. The case to be brought this week against the British Government for the torture of suspects during Kenya's Mau Mau rebellion therefore promises to raise yet another set of embarrassing revelations. - Times Online website

Analysis : Britain has moral duty to allow Mau Mau case to proceed - 23 June
Since the 1950s, Mau Mau has often been synonymous with atavistic savagery. It was a grassroots movement that sought to end British rule in Kenya, and with it the privileges of an African minority loyal to colonialism. Comprised almost entirely of Kikuyu – Kenya's largest ethnic group - Mau Mau perpetrated some heinous crimes. But, so, too, did the agents of British colonialism, and on an order of magnitude that dwarfed Mau Mau acts of violence. - Times Online website

Families to sue for forces deaths - 19 June
Four families of servicemen killed in Snatch Land Rovers in Iraq and Afghanistan are to sue the Ministry of Defence, the BBC has learned. They claim the vehicles are too lightly armoured to cope with the weapons used against them and that the MoD was negligent in allowing their use. However, the MoD maintains the vehicles are vital equipment and suitable for the jobs they must perform. Since 2003, some 37 UK personnel have been killed while using the vehicles. - BBC News website

Army 'to pay for cold injuries' - 16 June
The Ministry of Defence faces paying out millions of pounds in damages to soldiers injured by the cold. Many of the soldiers are from Commonwealth countries and claim MoD negligence led to them being hurt. Some have been subjected to extreme pain and varying levels of disability caused by the cold - similar to the condition once known as "trench foot". The MoD has received about 150 claims for cold injury, and says it will pay compensation if it is found liable. Doctors say soldiers from hot countries such as those in the Commonwealth are particularly sensitive to Non Freezing Cold Injury (NFCI). - BBC News website

Australians jailed over graffiti - 17 June
Six "intelligent and well-educated" Australians have been jailed for causing damage put at £70,000 during a six-month graffiti spree in London. The court heard that each of the men has an interest in graphic art. All of the men will serve half their sentence on licence and will not face deportation. British Transport Police detectives found photographic evidence that the gang had also left its mark in Australia and Japan. - BBC News website

Criminal Justice System

Judge warns on sentence increases - 24 June
Increasing jail terms for criminals should not be proposed without calculating how much it would cost, a senior judge has warned. The most senior judge in England and Wales, Sir Igor Judge, cited prison overcrowding and "under-resourcing". - BBC News website

Cyberlaw

See also : Miscellaneous E-things. Ruling on NightJack author Richard Horton kills blogger anonymity

Environment

Climate Change Bill passed - 26 June
The Scottish Government's world-leading legislation to tackle climate change has been passed by MSPs in the Parliament. The Bill sets a target of reducing emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, including emissions from international aviation and shipping. It also sets an interim target for a 42 per cent cut in emissions by 2020. - eGov Monitor website

Family Law

British tycoon selling up luxury home - 4 June
British tycoon Brian Myerson, whose bigamous lifestyle of 10 years and bid to renegotiate his £9,5-million (R125-million) divorce settlement grabbed headlines across the world, has put his Plettenberg Bay holiday home and polo estate on the market for R50-million. - Weekend Post website

Businessman was never married to 'wife' despite wedding ceremony, court rules - 6 June
Wealthy property agent Robert Leigh does not have to share his assets with his South African "wife" because they were never truly married, despite holding a ceremony, a High Court judge has ruled. Mr Leigh, 49, the managing director of the Featherstone Leigh chain of estate agents, exchanged rings and vows with Gillian Hudson, 43, in a "splendid and romantic" rooftop wedding service in Cape Town in 2004. Afterwards they were referred to as Mr and Mrs Leigh but they never went through with a separate civil ceremony which they had planned to hold after their return to Britain, the High Court heard. - Telegraph website

'Wedding' was not legal marriage - 5 June
A High Court judge in London has ruled that a "wedding" in South Africa - complete with priest, trousseau and reception - was not a legal marriage. The decision means the "bride" cannot seek a settlement or file for divorce. Mr Justice Bodey said : "The bride was in full wedding trousseau and all the guests were dressed up to the nines". He said both were asked by the priest whether they took each other as husband and wife, and they replied 'yes'. "Rings were exchanged with the words 'I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage' and after the ceremony were referred to as Mr and Mrs Leigh," the judge added. But the couple and the priest agreed beforehand to word it so it did not comply with marital laws, Mr Justice Bodey said. - BBC News website

See also :
Rich estate agent asks judge to declare African wedding 'void' after wife files for divorce - 24 April
Mail Online website
[InfoUpdate 10 of 2009]

History-making divorcee Julia McFarlane is awarded an extra £100 000 a year - 20 June
A divorcing wife who made legal history when the law lords awarded her a £250,000-a-year payout from her husband has won a 40 per cent increase in her maintenance payments. Julia McFarlane, 49, who separated from her husband Kenneth in 2000, will receive £350 000 a year although her needs have been put at £150 000. The new High Court ruling means that she will share in her former husband’s increased income, which has risen from £750 000 at the time of the divorce award to £1.1 million after tax. The award will be reviewed in 2015 when he plans to retire aged 55. - Times Online website

Tycoon Scot Young faces jail in £400m divorce - 21 June
A secretive tycoon at the centre of one of Britain’s biggest divorce cases is facing jail over the whereabouts of his £400m fortune. Scot Young, a "fixer" to Russian oligarchs and British billionaires, has been told that he could be imprisoned for failing to tell a High Court judge where his money has gone. Details of the case can be made public for the first time after the judge made a special order last Wednesday allowing The Sunday Times to report on the hearing. - Times Online website

Earl Spencer fails to win blanket press ban in divorce proceedings - 24 June
Earl Spencer and his former wife, Caroline, were united yesterday in an attempt to oust the media from their battle for a divorce settlement at the High Court. In the first high-profile test of reforms that allowed reporters into family courts, including divorce hearings, Lord Spencer and his former wife wanted a blanket ban on any publicity. - Times Online website

Government

MPs' expenses : the 20 worst cover-ups - 19 June
The worst abuses of the parliamentary expenses system exposed by The Telegraph’s investigation were covered up in the officially released documents. The actions of MPs who claimed thousands of pounds in interest for mortgages that had already been repaid were hidden because their addresses were blacked out. Meanwhile, many of the most extravagant and bizarre household items claimed for by other MPs were also disguised, leaving only the amounts of money they claimed. The following would not have been disclosed. - Telegraph website

MPs' expenses : MPs repay nearly £500 000 - 18 June
MPs have repaid nearly £500 000 amid public anger over abuses of the Westminster expenses system, it has been disclosed. They have returned a total of £478 615.07 to the taxpayer so far, according to figures released by Parliament. Many MPs have handed over cash after admitting claiming too much, but others have done it as a gesture to try and allay constituents' anger. - Telegraph website

MPs face draconian criminal sanctions on expenses - 23 June
MPs face draconian new sanctions which could result in criminal prosecutions for misdemeanours under new legalisation being rushed through Parliament. Gordon Brown promised the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) as part of "root and branch" reform of the system and a new code of conduct for MPs. It will be accompanied by three new criminal offences : covering knowingly making a false claim for an allowance, failing to register outside interests and receiving money to lobby for outside interests. - Times Online website

MPs to face a year in prison for fiddling expenses - 24 June
MPs caught fiddling their expenses could face a year in prison from the autumn after the House of Commons agreed to surrender its right to police itself. Parliament looks likely to approve rules that will see Members who lobby for money or fail to declare how long they spend on work outside Parliament being hauled before a judge. - Times Online website

Human Rights

Outcry over Government's decision to hold Iraq war inquiry in secret - 16 June
Gordon Brown faced accusations of a fix and an "Establishment stitch-up" yesterday after ruling that the long-awaited Iraq war inquiry would be in secret and not report until after the general election. The Prime Minister came under attack from MPs on all sides, as well as from families of troops killed in the conflict, after insisting that hearings could not be held in public for reasons of national security. - Times Online website

Gordon Brown forced into Iraq inquiry secrecy climbdown - 18 June
Parts of the Iraq war inquiry may now be held in public after Gordon Brown was forced into a partial climbdown. The Prime Minister had announced to the Commons that the hearings would be held in private but, in an attempt to defuse anger over the issue, opened the way for some of them to be in the open. - Times Online website

Tony Blair faces calls to appear at public Iraq war inquiry after plan backfires - 22 June
Tony Blair tried to stop the Iraq war inquiry being held in public as new evidence emerged suggesting that he knew Saddam Hussein may not have weapons of mass destruction. The former Prime Minister lobbied Sir Gus O'Donnell, the head of the Civil Service, fearing that a public appearance at the inquiry, headed by Sir John Chilcott, could turn into a "show trial". The move appears to have backfired this weekend, as it emerges that part of the inquiry will now be heard in public and Mr Blair is the focus of calls to appear. - Times Online website

Labour Issues

Baby P doctor sues over dismissal - 19 June
A doctor who failed to spot that Baby Peter had a broken back and ribs days before his death is suing her former employers over her dismissal. Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat missed the injuries after deciding she could not perform a full check-up because he was "cranky". The consultant paediatrician's contract with Great Ormond Street Hospital, which is responsible for child services in Haringey, was terminated after the case came to light. - BBC News website

Cocktail waitress wins dress case - 15 June
A cocktail waitress who refused to wear a tight-fitting dress at work has been awarded £3 000 compensation. Fata Lemes worked at the Rocket Bar in Mayfair for eight days last year and was told female staff would have to wear the tight red dress in the summer. At the time the uniform was a black shirt and trousers for men and women. A panel upheld her claim that bar owners Spring and Green had discriminated against her on the grounds of her gender.  It rejected Ms Lemes' claims that she was sacked from the bar and that she fell prey to discrimination because she did not receive tips for the shifts she worked. For that reason the panel decided her original claim of £17 500 was dismissed as "manifestly absurd". However, it granted £3 000 compensation and £711.73 in wages, plus interest, giving a total of £3 893.26. This was reduced by 25% because the members found Ms Lemes's solicitor Joe Sykes did not set out the basis of grievance properly. - BBC News website

Low-paid male council workers win right to equal pay with women - 25 June
More than 12 000 men in low-paid jobs won the right to bring equal pay claims alongside thousands of women in a landmark ruling yesterday. In a test case, 300 men working as care assistants, caretakers, drivers and leisure attendants have lodged discrimination claims against South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council and Hartlepool and Middlesbrough Borough Councils. Their claim is over what they say are discriminatory bonuses paid to male workers in better paid jobs, such as gardeners and refuse collectors. - Times Online website

Land Affairs

Brief encounter : land ownership - 26 June
There are some old mine workings near our house that have been sealed up for years. The local records office has plans that show at least one tunnel under our garden, a long way below the surface. Precisely how far down does our property go or do we own everything underneath the house? There is an ancient principle of Roman law that "cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos" ("for whoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to the sky and down to the depths"). This rule has been applied in England and Wales for many centuries. In the era of space travel and deep tunnelling, lawyers have started to test the legal limits of this ownership. The short answer to your question is therefore that you certainly own the land to at least 2 800 ft down, but law has yet to go any deeper than this. - Times Online website

Recession

British Airways asks staff to work for free - 16 June
British Airways has asked its 40 000 staff to work without pay for up to a month as the ailing airline seeks to cut costs. The group, which made a record £401 million loss in 2008 amid surging fuel prices and a collapse in premium-fare passengers, is seeking to reduce costs dramatically and has already offered staff unpaid leave or a reduction in hours. - Times Online website

BA staff agree to work for free - 26 June
Struggling British Airways on Thursday said 800 staff had agreed to work unpaid and thousands more to pay cuts, helping the group save up to £10 million (R131 million). After diving into a financial loss, the airline last month asked staff to work for free, while promising that chief executive Willie Walsh and BA's finance director Keith Williams would forgo their July salaries. - Business Report website

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