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PROGRAMME INFO |
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The programme that tackles the big legal issues as well as the everyday ones without long words, small print or expensive fees. It is aimed at anyone who is interested in the way the law works - and sometimes doesn't work.
Send your comments to lawinaction@bbc.co.uk
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LISTEN AGAIN |
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PRESENTER |
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A lawyer turned journalist, he was a leader writer and legal correspondent for The Times before becoming freelance, since when he has written and broadcast on many different subjects for a wide range of newspapers, magazines, radio and television. He currently writes a weekly column on legal issues for The Guardian, and is lecturer on media law at the City University.
Past highlights have included devising and presenting the first television drama-documentary to feature real lawyers and judges doing their job (for London Weekend Television) and devising and editing the award-winning The Law Magazine.
He has written or co-written four books, including The Law Machine (with Clare Dyer, Penguin, 5th edition, 2000).
Apart from his output on legal themes, he is the crime fiction reviewer for The Times, used to set a weekly quiz for The Guardian and is a panelist on BBC Radio 4's Round Britain Quiz.
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| PROGRAMME DETAILS | | | |
|  | | Four people died in the Hatfield crash.
Criminal charges will soon be brought against those companies and individuals alleged to be responsible for the Hatfield rail crash in October 2000. Law in Action speaks to Richard Lissack QC, who has been advising the Crown Prosecution Service throughout the investigation,about the offence of corporate manslaughter, and why it is often so hard to make the charge stick.
| |  | | Lorraine Hadley (left) and Natallie Evans at a previous hearing
Two women asked the High Court this week to give them the right to implant stored IVF embryos which their ex-partners want destroyed. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act requires the consent of both partners before IVF treatment can go ahead, but the women argued that it was too late for the men to withdraw consent once the embryos had been created, and that the destruction of their embryos would unjustifiably violate their human right under Article 12 of the European Convention to ‘found a family’. One of the women is now infertile following treatment for cancer – but is the fact that this could be her 'last chance' for a baby likely to affect the court’s decision? Marcel speaks to medical law expert Emily Jackson about the issues in the case.
| |  | | Protestors have been arrested for criminal trespass at Lords
Last week we looked at the case of the royal party gatecrasher Aaron Barschak, and asked what offences he might be charged with. In the opinion of our expert, there was ‘very little opportunity’ to charge anyone with criminal trespass, although it was likely that the Queen would be able to sue for civil trespass in the county court. This week listener Anna Meryt emailed the programme to remind us that, since the 1994 Criminal Justice Act, a criminal offence of aggravated trespass did exist on the statute books; she herself had recently been charged with it. So what does it take for a trespass to qualify as criminal – and why wasn’t Mr Barschak’s behaviour caught by this offence? Marcel talks to solicitor Michael Schwartz.
| |  | | Lord Woolf
A report out from the Prison Reform Trust this week suggests that the record number of people in prison is due to harsher legislation and longer minimum sentences rather than any great crime wave. At the same time a grassroots project to inform people about the meaning and effectiveness of ’community sentences’ has taken off, with backing from the Chief Justice Lord Woolf. Marcel speaks to Lancashire lay magistrate Linda Thornber about her approach to sentencing, and gives her the opportunity to explain why community sentences are not a soft option.
| |  | | Smoking in public may soon be banned
Pressure to stop smoking in public places increased this week, with chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson urging a ban in his latest annual report, days after the Office of National Statistics reported that 88 per cent of people wanted restrictions on smoking in restaurants. Another independent report recently found that less than half the pubs and bars in England and Wales were complying with a voluntary code to reduce customers' exposure to smoke. The news comes at a time when anti-smoking laws in states and cities across the United States - most recently in Lexington, Kentucky, and most famously in New York - have attracted a lot of attention. So how do such laws work? How might they be challenged? And would they make sense over here? Charles Sigler reports on the American experience, and talks to MP for Harrow West Gareth Thomas who, until he was reshuffled into the Government last month, was promoting a private members’ bill to ban smoking in all places where food is sold.
| |  | | All male juries are the norm in Gibraltar
Under Gibraltarian law only men have to do jury service. Women can volunteer, but very few do, so that, in effect, Gibraltar has a single-sex jury system. This week a challenge to this system, brought by an alleged victim of domestic violence who objected to the subsequent trial being heard by an all-male jury, ended its legal journey in the Privy Council. We won’t know the outcome for some months yet, but the case raises interesting issues of fairness and its perception. Marcel speaks to Jennifer MacDermott, the solicitor for Pilar Rojas, the woman bringing the case.
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RELATED LINKS
Corporate manslaughter and the Hatfield crash
BBCi - Hatfield families seek compensation
The families of people killed in the Hatfield rail crash are preparing to go to court to seek compensation.
BBCi - Hatfield train crash
In depth report on the Hatfield disaster
BBCi - Prosecutors given Hatfield crash evidence
Evidence that could eventually be used to bring manslaughter charges over the Hatfield rail crash has been handed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Centre for Corporate Accountability
A not-for-profit organisation which promotes worker and public safety, and provides advice on corporate criminal accountability.
Home Office – May 2003 press release on corporate manslaughter
Richard Lissack QC's website
IVF embryo case
BBCi - Embryo battle goes to court
Two women have gone to the High Court to try to win the right to use frozen embryos against the will of their former partners.
BBCi – IVF
Around 6,000 babies a year are born in the UK as a result of in vitro fertilisation.
Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority
Website of the statutory body that regulates IVF and other reproductive technologies.
Criminal Trespass
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
Full text of the Act that brought in the offence of aggravated trespass.
Your Rights.org – Aggravated Trespass
Guide to the offence under the CJA 1994, from the civil liberties group Liberty.
Crown Prosecution Service – guidance on trespass
Legal guidance on trespass under the CJA.
Guardian online: GM crop protesters cleared in high court test case
Article from 2001 about failure to prosecute GM crop protesters for aggravated trespass.
Community sentences
Prison Reform Trust - home page
The work of the Prison Reform Trust is aimed at creating a just, humane and effective penal system.
Payback – information on community sentences
Payback was a short-term campaign (1999-2002), promoting community penalties for non-violent offenders. Its permanent website has good links.
BBCi – Crime and Punishment in Merseyside
In Liverpool , there is a real drama about the kind of punishment burglars should.receive.
Smoking and the law
BBCi - Ministers urged to ban public smoking
The government's top doctor has urged ministers in England to ban smoking in public places.
BBCi - Smoking
Smoking is a greater cause of death and disability than any single disease, says the World Health Organisation.
ASH UK - International developments on smoke-free policies
'Action on Smoking and Health'is an NGO that campaigns against smoking.
'Nature' magazine- All in a puff over passive smoking
Anti-anti-smoking study provokes furore among researchers.
Gibraltar juries
Government of Gibraltar
Website with links to full (pdf) copy of the Gibraltar Constitution
DISCLAIMER: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external links
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Audio Help
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| | PREVIOUS PROGRAMMES
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| 27 June 2003
Aiming for diversity in university admissions – where does the law draw the line?
- Affirmative action law in the US and UK.
- Royal gatecrashing: what’s the crime?
- Human rights not violated by Scottish ban on hunting.
- Church repairs:'capricious' ancient law costs Aston Cantlow couple dear.
20 June 2003
Judging the judges - who should choose?
Special single-issue edition on judicial appointments.
13 June 2003
Suicide and the state - when it must let you die.
- The law in relation to suicide.
- Executed George Kelly's 1950 conviction quashed.
- Lawyers who do it for free.
- The end of the Irvine era: his legacy and the changes to come.
6 June 2003
Nothing to lose? - what you need to know about no win no fee.
- Conditional fee agreements.
- Looted artefacts: closing the legal loophole.
- UK Coroners system to be reformed.
- Travellers' rights and local authority injunctions : the balancing act.
30 May 2003
Stansted hijackers' convictions quashed - does the law on duress need to change?
- Hijacking and the defence of duress.
- Will the timeshare fraudster really get to keep his loot?
- Should you be 'registering' your village green?
- House of Lords gets to grips with privacy and the common law.
Link to factsheets from earlier series of Law in Action
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