INTERVIEW: Sara Ryan talks about justice for Laughing Boy Connor Sparrowhawk. His name has got a superhero-like ring to it. ‘Connor Sparrowhawk, the boy who…’ But the boy who what? The boy who ‘loved his family’, suggests mum, Sara Ryan. ‘The boy who loved our dog, Chunky Stan, reading Horrible Histories, watching YouTube films of
Now is not the time for party politicking, Lord Bach tells Legal Voice, as he shares his hopes to restore political consensus and enshrine the right to justice Lord Bach, Labour’s former justice spokesman, and current Leicestershire police and crime commissioner, is in buoyant mood when I meet him at the Fabian Society, minutes down
In the second instalment of a two-part article, the self-styled ‘radical lawyer’ Michael Mansfield talks to Catherine Baksi about legal aid, what made him become a lawyer and, if he had his time again, why he would be a jazz drummer. You can read the first part here. Pic: Michael Mansfield and Maxine Peake at
In the first instalment of a two-part article, the self-styled ‘radical lawyer’ talks to Catherine Baksi about his 50 years at the Bar, why the Grenfell Tower inquiry judge should ‘quietly stand down’ and his belief that one day Tony Blair will end up in the dock over Iraq. The career of human rights barrister Michael Mansfield
A leading human rights lawyer has called on the Grenfell Tower residents to insist that they were not ‘excluded’ from any forthcoming inquiry. Michael Mansfield QC called on victims of the Kensington tower-block blaze which killed at least 79 people to act immediately: ‘Those who’ve got the strength have got to come together to put in representations about
Should justice be crowdfunded? Will Bordell reports on the Three Scottish Soldiers campaign – representing the families of Fusiliers Dougald McCaughey, John McCaig and Joseph McCaig , murdered in cold-blood by the IRA – about their fight for justice. This article first appeared on www.thejusticegap.com here ‘Why do they need to ask?’ wonders Kris McGurk.
INTERVIEW: Susan was being driven to the hospital by her boyfriend after suffering from a miscarriage. Without warning, she and her boyfriend found themselves surrounded by police and forced off the road. Their car crashed into a tree leaving Susan with a fractured spine. It later emerged that they had been wrongly suspected of being
INTERVIEW: ‘The real role for government in the future is not as funder but as convenor,’ reflects Guy Beringer, chairman of The Legal Education Foundation (TLEF). It is a role that wouldn’t cost the taxpayer huge amounts of money but nonetheless would be ‘enormously effective’. ‘The problem is though it isn’t happening,’ Beringer adds. The
INTERVIEW: ‘The whole point of the law is to have teeth. It is not just about appealing to moral persuasion,’ said Lord Anthony Gifford QC, the co-founder of the first law centre. The veteran human rights lawyer, who moved to Jamaica in 1989, was talking to www.thejusticegap.com. After more than 50 years at the Bar,
INTERVIEW: ‘We’d like Michael Gove to come and spend a night in the police station and a day in magistrates court with us,’ says Jonathan Black, president of the London Criminal Courts’ Solicitors Association (LCCSA). The Lord Chancellor will no doubt have had better offers. Black’s invitation reflects a growing frustration that the new justice
