Constitutional Law
Darryl K. Martin Constitutional Law Dr. Andrew Henderson 6 February 2005 Essay 3 Suppose that the Defence and Security Act 2003 (imaginary) empowers the Home Secretary to make regulations for the detention of suspected terrorists. It provides that such persons shall be detained in accordance with whatever conditions are stipulated by the minister "in his absolute discretion", subject to approval of the regulations by affirmative resolution of each House of Parliament. The Home Secretary makes regulations that permit the indefinite detention of anyone against whom there are "reasonable grounds for suspicion of involvement in, or links with, terrorist groups or terrorist activity". The regulations provide that no decision of the minister under these regulations "may be challenged or questioned in any court of law", such a decision being "final and conclusive". Affirmative resolutions are duly passed by both Houses. Scroggs has been detained as a suspected terrorist. Although his brother has been convicted in Germany of a minor assault on a prominent politician, Scroggs denies that he has any connection with terrorist groups or any sympathy for their activities. He is told that the decision to detain him has been taken at a "high level" within the Home Office, and on expert advice, but that no reasons can be provided without unacceptably endangering national security.
Constitutional law.
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW Christine Byres LLB CONTENTS HEADINGS PAGE NO. Introduction 3 A little bit of History 4 Scottish Bill 6 Research Programme 7 The Scottish Act 1998 8 Paper Clippings 10 Conclusion 11 Bibliography 12 Appendix A - Section 98, Schedule 6 of 1998 Scotland Act 13 Appendix B - Results of Referendum in Scotland in 1997 14 Appendix C - Abstracts from the Scottish Bill 19 Appendix D - Scotland Act 1998 - Schedule 5 Reserved Matters 20 CONSTITUTIONAL LAW "Devolution has been unqualified success." With reference to the Scotland Act 1998, the legislation passed by Scottish Parliament and governance in Scotland since devolution, analyse this statement. Introduction Royal Commission defined Devolution as "the delegation of central government powers without the relinquishment of sovereighty."1 In recent years we have seen some serious changes in the governance of Scotland. It was on the 1 May 1997 that the Labour government committed to a constitutional programme. It was one of the Labour party's declarations in 1997 that it was important to modernise the constitution. By the end of that summer, they produced a White Paper on devolution to
Legal insanity.
The definition of insanity comes from the M'Naghten Rules [1843]. To prove legal insanity it is necessary to show that, 'the accused was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know it, that he did not to know he was doing what was wrong.' Insanity is a general defence and if the defence is successful it will lead to a special verdict of 'not guilty by reason of insanity'. A main issue of concern is that it relies on the M'Naghten rules which followed the case in 1843. The language is therefore archaic, leading the judges to their own interpretation of the rules. Many defendants are concerned when the issue of insanity is raised, so they plead guilty, then appeal on the grounds that insanity should not have been raised. This is a large criticism of the defence as it leads to injustice. It is unlikely to change in the near future as insanity is viewed as a valid defence. If the defendant faces a murder charge, the court must issue a hospital order. The defendant will be punished even when they are not guilty. This is unlikely to change for a number of reasons. Firstly changing existing legislation is a lengthy procedure. Secondly, this order is issued to protect the public and it is for policy reasons. Insanity is not a medical definition but a legal definition, the
"The law relating to Mens Rea of murder has now become settled through a series of judicial decisions which, taken together, have made it unnecessary for parliament to legislate on the matter." Critically consider the truth of this statement.
Law: Mens Rea Homework Lydia Simone Lawton-Harris "The law relating to Mens Rea of murder has now become settled through a series of judicial decisions which, taken together, have made it unnecessary for parliament to legislate on the matter." Critically consider the truth of this statement. A simple translation on Mens Rea is a guilty mind but this is not as accurate as it should be. Key words for Mens Rea are Intention, Recklessness and Negligence. There are different types of intention, for example, there is pure intention, which means that the intention of the act is obvious simply by the actions and the happenings around the event. There is also direct and oblique intent; direct intent is a typical situation where the consequences of a person's actions are desired. Oblique intent covers the situation where the consequence is foreseen by the defendant as virtually certain, although it is not desired for it's own sake, but the defendant goes ahead with his actions anyway. (See also the example given by Lord Bridge in R v Moloney). Murder requires only intention. Murder can be defined as: "...The unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being under the Queen's Peace with malice aforethought..." In a more modern explanation murder is defined as 'The intention to kill OR cause grievous bodily harm'. Courts have had to define the meaning of intention themselves,
Critically assess the effectiveness of the criminal law as a means of protecting the environment from pollution
Critically assess the effectiveness of the criminal law as a means of protecting the environment from pollution. The main function of the criminal law, as a means of protecting the environment, is to reach impartial decisions based on the merits of each case. Environmental law is primarily concerned with human activity and the principal method which is used to regulate these activities1 is the Command and Control regulatory regime. In addition, each regulatory regime is supported, to a great extent, by criminal law offences. These offences are mainly summary, indictable and "both way" offences and the most serious tend to be related to pollution. Furthermore, they are predominantly offences of Strict Liability.2 The maximum penalty in the Crown Court is 5 years imprisonment and unlimited fines, and in the Magistrates' Court it is 6 months imprisonment and a £20,000 fine. These offences are, on the whole, inchoate offences and there is no need to prove damage to, or even with, the environment. The criminal law has been used either to grant direct criminal punishment for environmental harm, or in a supplementary role within a regulatory system. However, it seems to be more effective in its supplementary role. This is because the whole objective of criminal law is to punish clearly identified wrongs, but in reference to a lot of environmental matters, it is sometimes
How far is it true to say that the work of solicitors and barristers has changed so much that it is no longer necessary for there to be two separate professions?
How far is it true to say that the work of solicitors and barristers has changed so much that it is no longer necessary for there to be two separate professions? Many changes have taken place in the work of solicitors and barristers in recent years and there is still pressure for many other areas to change. These recent changes have led to much discussion about whether the professions of solicitors and barristers will eventually become one. Solicitors used to have the monopoly on conveyancing, but in the 1980's the conveyancing monopoly was lost when an Act of parliament was passed allowing 'licensed conveyancers' to conduct conveyancing as well. The loss of conveyancing did not have the huge impact that solicitors expected, yet there may be further changes ahead. The OFT's report asked whether banks and building societies should be able to provide conveyancing and probate services to their clients. Small firms of solicitors worried if they lost too large a portion of their conveyancing and probate work that they would go under; it is small firms that often acts for the most vulnerable in society and provide access to justice in unfashionable parts of town or areas of law. The OFT's report also raised the issue of whether the right to conduct litigation should still operate through a solicitor. In it's follow up review the OFT was disappointed that no further steps had been
Company Law.
00972608 COMPANY LAW ESSAY The law relating to corporate manslaughter by many is deemed of being ineffective. Companies can be charged with manslaughter through the Homicide Act 1957 only if the identification principle, established through case law, can be established. However, the case law surrounding corporate manslaughter has made it very difficult for a company to be liable for manslaughter due to the loop in the law brought about by the identification principle and the general hardship of proving mens rea for a company's criminal offence. Therefore a company can be guilty of involuntary manslaughter. This is because for voluntary manslaughter to be applicable the defendant must rely on one of the defences of provocation1, diminished responsibility2, or by killing in pursuance to the suicide pact3. Indeed without such defences the charge would be one of murder, which is clearly inapplicable to any discussion of corporate liability. Involuntary manslaughter is made up of two categories and are clearly defined as ) an intention to do an act which is unlawful and likely to cause immediate personal injury, though not necessarily serious injury, or, 2) an intention to do an act, or omit to act where there is a duty to do so, being reckless whether death or personal injury be caused4 Indeed although the sort of mental state the defendant must have it still remains to
Company law.
COMPANY LAW ASSIGNMENT 1 CONTENTS Page 3 Terms of Reference Page 4 Summary Page 5-9 Main Body Page 8 References, bibliography Terms of Reference This paper is base on the concept of 'Minority Shareholder Protection'. Minority shareholder protection is one of the most complicated areas of company law. During the course of this paper I will attempt to: • Identify minority shareholder's right. • Analyses the legal protections of minority shareholder. • Identify the legal protection of minority shareholders. • Look at cases where the concept has been used and the decisions. • decide whether the concept achieves its purpose. Summary Decisions of directors or shareholders are normally taken on the basis of majority vote. If shareholder happen o find himself/herself in the minority, there is not normally anything that he/she can do about it. However, the law provides protection for the minority shareholders, although that is very difficult and very expensive to enforce minority rights. Shareholder disputes can be enormously expensive to resolve because lawyers have to review the whole history of company before advising and because both sides can become entrenched in their views. The dispute also takes up an inordinate amount of management time, which is particularly detrimental to smaller, owner managed companies. Main Body Minority Shareholder
Common Law
Md. Miadur Rahman (Shuvo) Common Law Legal systems are ways of establishing and maintaining social order. The term legal system refers to the nature and content of the law generally and the structures and methods whereby it is legislated upon, adjuricated upon and administered upon within a given jurisdiction. A legal system is a complex of operation, processes, human action, institution and ideals. The law may be categorized in number of ways although the various categorises are not mutually exclusive. The English legal system is a common law system. The system is largely case cent red and hence job centre allowing scope for a discretionary ad hoc, pragmatory approach to a particular case that comes before the court as opposed to continental system which are very strong in civil law. The civil law tends to be codified body of general principal having it's origin in ancient roman law as codified in the corpus juris civilis of Justinian. Statute is basic to both common law and civil law. The common law of England has come out of hundreds of years of development beginning with Anglo Saxon customs and the impact of the Norman rationalization and centralization of authority. In case of the common law it is important to appreciate that it is complex historical product with a number of distinctive features. The common law is a body of general rules prescribing social conduct.
Common Law and Equity
Common Law and Equity There are three types of historical law, these are: Common, Custom, and Equity. The term 'common law' developed from the use of customs. Judges would select the best 'customs', then these were used by all judges throughout the country. Thus this is how the term came to be developed. Common law is the foundation of our law today: it is fundamentally unwritten law that developed from the customs and judicial decisions. 'Equity' developed because of the problems in common law. Only certain types of cases were recognised. The law was also very technical; if there was an error in formalities the person would lose the case. Customs are rules of behaviours which develop in society without being consciously created for a specific purpose. There are two main types of custom: general and local customs. General customs are believed to have been very important in that there were, effectively, the basis of common law. They are also accepted in that they have long since been absorbed into legalisation or case law and are no longer a creative source of law. Local customs is when a person claims that he/she is entitled to some local right, such as a right of way or a right to use land in a particular way; because this is what has always happened locally. Such customs are an exception to the general law of the land, and will only operate in that particular area.