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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 | | | |
|  | | Prince Charles has felt compelled to deny unspecified allegations
Sir Michal Peat, Prince Charles’s personal secretary, announced this week that the Prince ‘categorically denies’ whatever it is he may be being accused of. The allegations cannot be described ‘for legal reasons’. Marcel Berlins asks media lawyer Matthew Nicklin just what these legal reasons are, and what would happen to anyone who ignored them. | |  | | Nicola Chenery and family - before the birth of her daughters
Earlier this week Nicola Chenery, a property developer from Plymouth, gave birth to twin girls. So far so unremarkable, but her pregnancy was different, because she was able to choose the sex of her child – or children, as it turned out. She could have tried the legal but chancy technique of sperm sex selection in the UK, but to get the only reliable treatment - embryo sex selection - she had to go abroad. As it happens the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority will revisit this area of law in a report due out next week. Marcel Berlins asked reproductive law expert Penney Lewis how the law stands now - and how it may be about to change. | |  | | Several of the foreign nationals detained under anti-terrorism laws are in Belmarsh Prison
Last week three judges decided that ten foreign nationals, detained on suspicion of being international terrorists could be detained indefinitely, pending further review. The judges were sitting as the Special Immigration Appeals Commission – SIAC. Their job was to assess whether there was clear evidence that the men did have serious links with terrorism. But the men themselves were not allowed to know the nature of much of that evidence. The SIAC procedures were fiercely debated when they were introduced, shortly after September 11, as part of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. Law in Action brought together the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, John Denham MP, with human rights expert Professor Conor Gearty of the LSE, to discuss whether the law in this area is striking the right balance between individual rights and public safety. | |  | | Mobile phone use whilst driving has been identified as a hazard.
Talking on mobile phones whilst driving a car will be an offence from December, making drivers liable to on-the-spot fines. Marcel Berlins speaks to AA Legal Adviser Ian Murray about the new law. | |  | | Pinochet would be well advised to avoid the US as long as the Alien Tort Claims Act is in place.
There's a big fight going on in the US over an obscure 18th Century statute, off-puttingly known as the Alien Tort Claims Act. It was designed to catch pirates, and allows claims to be brought in the Federal courts for any breach of ‘customary’ (as opposed to ‘treaty-based’) international law, wherever the harm happened, and even if both parties are 'aliens' – that is non-citizens of the US. Twenty-three years ago it attracted the attention of human rights lawyers, who discovered that it could be used to sue those who violate international human rights abroad. All a defendant has to do is set foot on US soil, or have a business link to the States, to find themselves in court.
The Act can claim many triumphs – including a recent verdict against a member of Pinochet’s death squads, whose victim’s family had discovered him living in Miami: a jury ordered Armando Fernandez Larios to pay the Cabello family damages of $4 million last month. But since lawyers turned their sights on big business the law has become controversial, and the US Government, which once boasted about it, has sprung to the attack. In the week that UK-based multinationals found themselves up alongside US giants in the New York courts under the Act, Lucy Bailey reports from both sides of a struggle which could reach the Supreme Court soon. | | | | | | |
RELATED LINKS
'Legal Reasons'
Guardian Unlimited 7 November 2003 - Paper continues legal talks over royal story
BBCi 7 November 2003 - Prince Charles denies 'ludicrous' claims
The Prince of Wales has denied allegations he was involved in an unspecified incident witnessed by a servant.
BBCi 7 November 2003 -Michael Fawcett: Trusted aide
Trusted aide Michael Fawcett resigned earlier this year amid claims about gifts to the royal household. He now finds himself at the centre of the renewed controversy surrounding Prince Charles, his former employer.
Terror
HMSO – full text of the Anti-Terrorism Crime & Security Act 2001
Home Affairs Select Committee – 2001 Report on the Anti-Terrorism Crime & Security Bill [sic]
Liberty 29 October 2003 - Response to SIAC ruling from Liberty and detainees.
Press Release from the civil liberties pressure group
Guardian Unlimited 5 August 2003 - Law lords to reappraise anti-terror rules
The legal basis under which 13 "suspected international terrorists" are being interned indefinitely in Britain without trial is to be reconsidered by the House of Lords.
BBCi 14 August 2002 - Terror accused demands apology
An Algerian pilot wrongly accused of training the hijackers who carried out the 11 September attacks has said he is considering taking legal action against the British and American authorities.
Home Office – Terrorism webpage
Website including links to Home Office press releases on SIAC
Driving & Mobile Phones
AA advice - Mobile phone restrictions
BBCi 19 October 2003 - Drivers 'set to break mobile ban'
One out of every three motorists is likely to break a new law forbidding holding mobile phones while driving, according to research.
BBCi 23 October 2003 -Man drove using two phones
A company director who admitted driving on a busy street while using two mobile phones has been fined £300.
Sex Selection
Sex choice mum has two girls
A mother of four boys has given birth to twin girls after going abroad to have sex selection treatment which is banned in UK.
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
BBCi – h2g2’s guide to Baby Sex Selection
Alien Tort Claims Act
BBCi 25 July, 2000 - Flashback: Caravan of Death
For a few days in October 1973, a self-styled military "delegation" toured provincial cities in northern and southern Chile, killing dozens of political opponents of General Augusto Pinochet's September coup
Human Rights Watch – background on the Alien Tort Claims Act
The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA)
CJA works to deter torture and other severe human rights abuses around the world by helping survivors hold the perpetrators accountable.They represented Zita Cabello in her successful action against her brother's murderer.
EarthRights International – Defending the Alien Tort Claims Act
Good ATCA resource page – with summaries of cases including Unocal and Talisman, and links to articles on the Act.
USA*Engage - homepage
Website of the coalition of business interests against unilateral sanctions - with information on their campaign about the Alien Tort Claims Act
National Foreign Trade Council
US industry body opposing the Alien Tort Claims Act, including link to their argument before the Supreme Court.
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
A useful online library of material on all aspects of business and human rights
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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| 31 October 2003
Aggravated Offences – is the law doing its job?
- Racially and religiously aggravated crimes – the problems of punishing ‘motive’
- Unlovely ‘spam’ – is there any escape?
- Suing the Council for crime – one couple’s last resort
- A single Equality and Human Rights Commission – but why?
24 October 2003
Drugs in Sport (again) – but is retrospective testing fair?
- Legal issues raised by the Dwain Chambers case.
- Satellite tracking – the future of offender tagging?
- The use of ‘bad character’ evidence in court – all about to change?
- The sins of the father? Why murderer’s children may soon get to inherit.
17 October 2003
Dennis Nilsen's autobiography - should the Prison Service give it back?
- Prisoners and their rights - is freedom of expression one of them?
- Stuck in a wheelchair for 15 months - can nurses legally refuse to lift?
- Legislating sexual behaviour - has the Government got it right?
-Law in Action's guide to this week's big House of Lords decisions.
10 October 2003
Secrecy and the Jury – time to open the door?
- House of Lords to hear arguments for opening up the jury process.
- France and the cosmetics industry challenge the EU animal testing ban in court.
- Selby train crash compensation – who should pay?
- Outsourcing the law – is legal advice about to move abroad?
3 October 2003
Women lose frozen embryo case - but is the law fair?
- High Court decides male ex-partners must be allowed to withdraw consent for embryos to be used.
- Autism and criminal responsibility - is a 'level playing field' really the right approach?
- Confidentiality and the law - when it'sillegal to spill the beans.
- Freedom of Religion in the armed forces? - the RAF Reservist fighting for the right not to fight.
Last Series - Summer 2003
1 August 2003
Happy Birthday to the mollusc that changed the legal world
- When police "sting" operations become illegal entrapment.
- What to be aware of if you're not the marrying kind.
- "Reasonable force" and the householder - how far can you go?
- The snail-contaminated drink that launched a thousand suits.
25 July 2003
Torture - a truly international crime
- Why British courts can try a foreigner for torture committed abroad.
- Chaos at Heathrow - can angry customers claim damages from BA?
- Will the Government's new approach to medical mistakes make the difference?
- Restorative justice - time to give it a chance?
- End of the road for the University Visitor?
18 July 2003
Reforming the Law Lords- why is it needed, and will it work?
- A Supreme Court for the UK - the rationale.
- New ways of appointing judges - should 'merit' really be all?
- Zeta Jones vs Hello! - compensating for distress.
- Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation soon to be outlawed.
- Tackling the burgeoning crime of identity fraud.
11 July 2003
Military trial for Guantanamo suspects - will it be fair?
- Arguments for and against trying Guantanamo's 'unlawful combatants' in U.S. military tribunals.
- Human rights and the environment - the implications of the Government's 'night flight' victory in Strasbourg.
- A licence to entertain - will a new law stop the music?
- Recovering criminal assets under the new Act: 100 days on.
4 July 2003
Corporate manslaughter and Hatfield - how to make it stick.
- Charges due in the Hatfield rail crash case - the law on corporate manslaughter.
- IVF case- can embryos be used after one partner withdraws consent?
- When is trespass criminal?
- Community sentences - a good thing or not?
- Anti-smoking laws: do they work?
- All male juries in Gibraltar - are they legal?
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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