Click here to view our policy paper
The Suicide Act 1961 changed the law under which it had been a crime for a person to commit suicide.
Assisted suicide remains illegal under s 2 of the Act. Whilst a person may refuse medical treatment even though that refusal would result in her death, she cannot ask another to take her life or assist her in doing so without exposing that person to a criminal prosecution.
Following the House of Lords’ judgment in the Debbie Purdy case, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) issued …
Click here to view our policy paper
The Suicide Act 1961 changed the law under which it had been a crime for a person to commit suicide.
Assisted suicide remains illegal under s 2 of the Act. Whilst a person may refuse medical treatment even though that refusal would result in her death, she cannot ask another to take her life or assist her in doing so without exposing that person to a criminal prosecution.
Following the House of Lords’ judgment in the Debbie Purdy case, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) issued …
By Felicity Gerry
Contrary to press reports last week, there is no defence to murder in England and Wales that the killing was a crime of passion.
Much was made in the press that the decision of the Court of Appeal in R v Clinton and others meant that the Lord Chief Justice had changed the law on loss of control. This is not correct. The new law on loss of control applies to all killings from 4 October 2010 and specifically excludes sexual infidelity as a defence so, if a person …
By Jacqueline Laing, director of Juris & senior lecturer in law at London Metropolitan University
A recent report by a Commission on Assisted Suicide funded by euthanasia advocates, Terry Pratchett and Bernard Lewis, ushered in by euthanasia supporter and Labour peer, Charles Falconer, and sponsored by Dignity in Dying (formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society), has found, predictably, that a legal framework should be investigated that would allow medical complicity in suicide. The fact that the 11-strong commission was made up of nine well-known proponents of euthanasia, led, inexorably, to an early-stage …
By Catherine Wilson
According to last weeks’ press coverage, schools are to be given new powers to weed out incompetent teachers and enforce “rigorous” standards to ensure performance is maintained. However, behind the headlines these proposals may be less far reaching in practice than they at first appear.
Poor performance is generally a fair reason for dismissal, irrespective of the business or organisation. However, in practice it is one of the most difficult processes for any employer to manage successfully. This is because unlike a dismissal for conduct or even sickness, the …
By Simon Hetherington
I should probably preface these observations with a brief statement of interest, to wit: English, with a more than passing interest in both Scots and English law and their legal systems; broadly in favour of the maintenance of the UK, and therefore broadly opposed to Scottish independence. The UK, I believe, benefits greatly from the fact of two legal systems, despite the constitutional complexities that this occasions.
Those complexities will be to the fore in the near future. As a Scottish referendum draws closer, the validity of treating that …
