The legal doctrine of joint enterprise is a set of common law legal principles originating from Victorian times. A heavily criticised doctrine of collective punishment, joint enterprise is relevant in cases where two or more people are charged with offences, enabling a conviction when a criminal act has been committed by another person. The law […]
Seventy years ago, a man with learning difficulties said a four-word phrase (‘Let Him Have It’) and was subsequently sentenced to death. While that conviction for murder was later quashed, Derek Bentley’s hanging could hardly be reversed. His fate remains a grim reminder that under the legal doctrine of joint enterprise, a set of legal […]
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a huge piece of legislation that is designed to increase control over the people. The police bill’s origin, promising a ‘smarter approach‘, claims to deliver on Conservative manifesto commitments to keep the public safe. Now that Parliament has concluded a consideration of amendments, it’s expected to receive […]
Jimmy McGovern knows his prisons: the landings, the noise, the drugs, and their problems. They are all vividly realised in his new drama Time, but what’s missing is the soul-sapping tedium of jail life. ‘There’s no boredom in the drama,’ he tells me. ‘In real life, there’s an immense amount of boredom; and, as with […]
Contrary to popular belief, defendants in criminal trials can come from all walks of life. Some people accused of crimes might have grown up in poverty or spent their childhood years rotating around the country’s conveyor belt care system; however, others will have a university degree under their belt and may, though it is rarer […]
It took a long time for the majority of the adult population to receive a vote in British elections. Women were excluded from the electorate for over a century by a controversial definition of voters as ‘male persons’, and former soldiers were not allowed a say at one point. It was only after World War […]
I had interviewed plenty of senior police officers and politicians in the past, but never a human rights lawyer. That is one reason why I was especially pleased to arrange an interview with Carl Buckley, an experienced member of Guernica 37, a Barristers’ Chambers with a specialism in dealing with conflict-related international crime, international public […]
‘I am having to deal with chaos,’ the Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland, complained back in September, ‘thanks to a Labour Government passing, with incontinence, Criminal Justice Acts after Criminal Justice Acts.’ Some people might interpret his outburst as meaning there are vastly conflicting visions from different parties for the struggling justice system, […]
It’s apparent that nothing this year could prompt a serving prisoner to raise a toast with their blue jail-issue plastic mug. This bleak conclusion might be rooted in the fact that prisoners are dying from failures to protect against a deadly global virus, or that men suffering from depression are being punished for self-harming, or […]
I have known Romford’s Member of Parliament, Andrew Rosindell, for countless years, having encountered him at events held in his Essex constituency, which happens to be where I was born and educated. Mr Rosindell, a politician with frontbench and backbench experience, has held a multitude of roles during his political career, including that of Shadow […]
Elliot Tyler