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The hearing of the Assange case in the Supreme Court dominated headlines this week. Assange appealed against his extradition to Sweden arguing the arrest warrant was “invalid and unenforceable”, and that the Swedish prosecutor who issued his European Arrest Warrant did not have the authority to do so. You can read the background to the case here.
The Justice Secretary is to reform the 1974 Rehabilitation of Offenders Act in order to shorten the period during which former offenders are obliged to tell potential employers about their criminal past. The period of time under which the convictions of medium-term prisoners will be ‘spent’ reduced from 10 years to four. The convictions of short-term prisoners, serving sentences up to six months, will be spent after two years instead of the current seven. The justice secretary also said this week that sending more people to prison for longer sentences in order to cut re-offending “does not work”.
Chris Huhne has quit as energy secretary after learning he was to be charged with perverting the course of justice over a 2003 speeding case. His now ex-wife Vicky Pryce will face the same charge over claims she accepted his penalty points. According to the statement from the CPS, “The essence of the charges is that between March and May 2003, Mr Huhne, having allegedly committed a speeding offence, falsely informed the investigating authorities that Ms Pryce had been the driver of the vehicle in question, and she falsely accepted that she was the driver.”
Barristers and solicitors should share most of their training, the chair of the Bar Standards Board has proposed. Lady Deech told students at Oxford University that the new structures in which lawyers can practise, and the severe shortage of pupillages, have called into question the way both branches of the profession should be trained. Deech said the change would help those uncertain which branch of the profession to train for, as well as those who realise that they made the wrong choice.
Proposed changes to ‘no win, no fee’ agreements will not be introduced until April 2013 at the earliest, the Government has said. The changes will prevent losing parties having to pay certain elements of an injured party’s successful damages claim. The Government had intended to bring the changes into force in October this year. But the delay was confirmed by Liberal Democrat peer and Advocate-General for Scotland Lord Wallace of Tankerness in a House of Lords debate on the proposals yesterday. The first part of the Bill, which proposes cuts to legal aid for most civil cases, has already been delayed until next year to give the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) more time to prepare for the change.
Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal, has lost his appeal against an earlier high court ruling requiring him to reveal who at the News of the World instructed him to hack into Steve Coogan’s voicemails. The court of appeal ruled that Mulcaire was not entitled to section 72 privilege against self-incrimination.
Finally – The Guardian had published an interactive history of the Supreme Court on their website, spanning from 1399 to the present day. Go and have a read if you would like to find out who said that from the highest court of appeal should “all equity ought to shine like the morning sun in his ascent, and to which both rich and poor can resort, for the refreshment and tranquillity of peace, and the redress of injuries, as to an unfailing refuge…”
