Bon Vivant

H.H. Judge Peter Murphy talks to Counsel about his novel, A Higher Duty  

Why write a novel about barristers?  This is really two questions in one, isn’t it? First, why write a novel at all? Second, why write a novel about barristers? 

A minute’s silence for the passing of the legal aid sytem 

June 10, 2013: “Nothing’s sacred to those devils.” Batman (Adam West) 

Short of bumping into the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on the way to the Bailey, things could not feel more eschatological. Arriving, I spotted what looked like a huge number of nicotine-addicted barristers congregating on the pavement outside the entrance. Hetty Briar-Pitt, my junior, barred my entry and forced me, like a shy horse, into their ranks. It dawned on me then that this was, in fact, a minute’s silence for the passing of the legal aid system. 

Nigel Pascoe QC reviews the recent staging of Judgement at Nuremberg at the Bridewell Theatre to which lawyer-actors brought their forensic skills  

Judging the Judges is a diverting philosophical exercise. The Bar are at it every day. But in the third Nuremberg trial it happened with a vengeance when four Nazi Judges faced an American panel of three. Was it to be victor’s justice and the least they deserved? Or were there real defences in law which could be deployed? 

In recent years, Judgement at Nuremberg  has been staged at the Tricycle Theatre as well as other lawyer’s productions, including 12 Angry Men, Inherit The Wind  and To Kill a Mockingbird ; all directed very successfully by Sally Knyvette. Any lawyer-actors would love the chance to bring their forensic skills to a professional venue and professionally directed, they can bring authentic attack and real flair to these classic court-room dramas: so again with this new staging at the Bridewell Theatre. The great virtue of this compelling play is that without ever losing its moral core, it is pretty even-handed in examining the issues and particularly who knew what of the Holocaust in legal and civilian circles. It reaches the right conclusion, but in the process, also allows us to follow the fall of a great but flawed German judge. Unlike his co-defendants whom he despises, this Judge has the moral courage to condemn himself. In dramatic terms then, a stonking great speech for a lawyer-actor and a marvellous central part - the fair and modest small-town American Judge. 

Sadness that the dumbing down of the office of Lord Chancellor has inevitably led to a lack of protection for an independent legal profession 

May 6, 2013: “I won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.” William F. Buckley, Jr.  

When I was a sixth-former, I decided to try for Oxford. In those days, there was an Entrance Examination. My Headmaster suggested I practise the General Paper. The first question was “Might you as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb?” Entirely missing the point, I wrote what I thought to be a humorous piece about the virtues of capital punishment. It was returned sporting a “Delta” and the comment: “You’re in the Sixth Form now. Grow Up.” 

David Wurtzel reviews The Winslow Boy – a tale of a family’s sacrifice as it fights to clear the name of an innocent son  

The Winslow Boy was first performed in May 1946. Watching it now at the Old Vic, one is struck by how much more “relevant” it has become. A plethora of issues comes alive, again and again, in this brilliant production in which every performance is pitch-perfect. 

Youth Court Guide (5th edition) 
ISBN: 978 184766 982 7
October 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Price: £70 

Youth Court hearings can be much more complicated than is often assumed. Leaving aside for a moment the fact that you are dealing with some of the most vulnerable people in society – children – and all the added complications that come with that, there are differences in procedure, court composition and sentencing to contend with. How convenient then to have these differences set out in one easy to read handbook. 

Data Protection Law and Practice (4th edition) 
Rosemary Jay
ISBN: 9780414024960
December 2012
Publisher: Sweet and Maxwell
£225 

Data protection is not a popular subject, even among lawyers. Most of us have been refused an answer to some innocuous question “because of data protection”. The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998 is badly drafted and obscure: for instance, it uses schedules to deal with matters of fundamental principle rather than supporting detail. 

Prospective jury members had better make their excuses good if they want to wriggle out of performing their time-honoured duty 

April 8, 2013: Jury: A group of 12 people, who, having lied to the judge about their health, hearing, and business engagements, have failed to fool him – Henry Louis Mencken  

Last week, the jury was selected in the sensational trial of Jason Grimble and Moses Lane for the alleged murder of the disliked Claude Allerick, formerly one of Her Majesty’s (Circuit) Judges and sometime member of Gutteridge Chambers. A last-minute reprieve had come when our previously assigned judge finally read at night in bed one page too many of the voluminous Criminal Procedure Rules and slipped a disc. Fate then gave us the lovely Jonathan Hay to try our case and the deceptively relaxed George White QC, of Treasury Counsel, to prosecute us. 

A change in trial judge and an uncomfortable truth 

March 7, 2013: “To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.” - Albert Camus  

This last month may have had its meteorological ups and downs, but I have a scent of Spring. This may have had something to do with recent events in the trial of Jason Grimble and Moses Lane, who are alleged to have murdered Claude Allerick, formerly one of Her Majesty’s Circuit Judges and sometime member of Gutteridge Chambers. 

Sports Law  (Second Edition)
by Michael Beloff, Tim Kerr, Marie Demetriou and Rupert Beloff
Published by Hart Publishing, October 2012
ISBN 1841133671
£95 

Any lawyer interested in the field of sports law should have the Second Edition of “Sports Law ” to hand; its lucid, comprehensive yet concise exposition of the relevant jurisprudence is as invigorating as a cold blast of fresh air in a sweaty workout. It reads like a good opinion, in which the author has mastered his subject and speaks authoritatively, with the answer and reasoning set out clearly and succinctly. 

The study is coherent: first, the pre-competition stage; second, the competition itself; third, the aftermath of disputes and disciplinary measures. 

The pre-competition stage focuses on the institutions that govern sport, their relations with each other and those taking part, and how the rules that control participation are established. The international and European aspects of sports law are particularly expertly covered: players’ rights and transfers as well as the commercial exploitation of sport where Articles 101 and 102 of the TFEU are to the fore. A section is devoted to the protection of children in sport.