"It’s a free country, i'n'it?”

Excellent stuff from Baroness Hale (at 112) as the House of Lords slapped down the Countryside Alliance's latest challenge against anti-hunting legislation this week. Head of Legal has some more serious analysis, but I want to know if the Lords will be completely embracing this kind of approach and soon be texting their speeches in. Presumably this fella would completely flip out at such a development. Assuming of course that he hasn't already.

Spot the Difference

If you've written for the "popular" press in the last week try this little exercise. See if you can spot the difference between this and this. Then try applying your new found knowledge to the Chindamo judgment.

Then you might like to try:
The Chindamo case
Human Rights - once more with feeling
Learco Chindamo and the law

Finally, you might be surprised to discover that it is possible to write a reasonably balanced and (shock horror!) accurate report. Try The Guardian and The Times.

This exercise is available free of charge, even if you are a lowly Secretary of State for Justice or a humble Leader of the Opposition. Not too hard was it?

A "squalid little bill"

So said Lord McNally as progress of the dreaded FOI amendment appeared to grind to a halt yesterday. Publawyer has been very busy for the last few weeks and neglected his sorry little blog, but he appears to have timed his return to coincide expertly with the latest development in what appears to have become his hobby horse. He also remembers, too late, that he was going to dispense with this whole third person malarkey. Oops. The usual sources are here and here, although The Times can't appear to get David Maclean's name right.

Elsewhere, as everyone probably knows by now, the House of Lords has ruled that the Human Rights Act applies to certain military acts carried out abroad. A "seminal decision" indeed.

I have been updating my links and added several EU law sites. It appears that the EU Constitutional Treaty might be reborn, but the same problems about agreeing a direction will still need to be dealt with.