The Legal Research Society

Head of State: Legal Discussion About The UK Election. Legal Research Society. 22 April 2010 There is a general feeling that the recent debate in Britain between the main party leaders was rather staid compared to the more theatrical style of the U.S Presidential debate on which it was modelled. Perhaps the British electorate would prefer the plain-spoken, tell-it-like-it-is politics of Chris Rock's prescient spoof of the U.S Presidential election. "Head of State" starts Chris Rock as an unlikely democratic for the presidency of the United State, who goes on to win over the electorate by shunning the political point-scoring and spin employed by other candidates and speaking forthrightly about issues that really concern people. Could such a tactic work for the political underdog in Britain. The screening of this sassy political satire was followed by a discussion of the recent and the forthcoming political debate in Britain, as well as the General Election that w...

Justice Greanwood the International Court of Justi ce judge is third from the left The Legal Research Society is active at home and abroad. Six of its members travelled to The Hague last summer to visit some of the top international judicial bodies. The study trip included visits to the Peace Palace which houses the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to the Organisation of the Prevention of Chemical Weapons as well as to The Hague Conference on Private International Law and to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The group met Justice Greenwood, judge on the ICJ, as well as Xavier-Jean Mohamed Keïta, head of the Office of Public Counsel for the Defence at the International Criminal Court. They also had a stopover at Leiden University to speak to peer researchers there. After returning to Aberdeen, they reported back to their colleagues in a feedback meeting at the Law School. The LRS thanks all who helped make this event possible. In 2008/09...

L.R.S has organised A Movie Night (Double Jeopardy) Followed by Legal Discussion on Wednesday 17th February 2010 “Double Jeopardy”, starring Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive and No Country for Old Men) and Ashley Judd (Where the Heart is and High Crimes) is a tense and slick American thriller. The plot centres around a fundamental legal doctrine within the American legal system, namely the constitutional protection against double jeopardy (being tried for the same crime twice) afforded by the fifth amendment. It is highly doubtful, however, that the drafters of the American Constitution had in mind the creative use of double jeopardy employed by the film’s protagonist to exploit the fact that she had previously been acquitted of the murder of her husband to do just that without the prospect of going to prison. Although the film is set in America, double jeopardy exists in other legal systems influenced by the common law, including Scotland where there was a recent review of the legal doc...

L.R.S organised a Movie night (Shooting Dogs) followed by a Legal iscussion on Thursday 28th January. According to Wikipedia: Shooting Dogs, released in the United States as Beyond the Gates, is a 2005 film, directed by Michael Caton-Jones and starring John Hurt , Hugh Dancy and Claire-Hope Ashitey . It is based on the experiences of BBC news producer David Belton , who worked in Rwanda during the Rwandan Genocide . Belton is the film's co-writer and one of its producers. The setting of the film is the Ecole Technique Officielle (ETO) in Kigali , Rwanda in 1994, during the Rwandan Genocide . Hurt plays a Catholic priest (loosely based on Vjekoslav Ćurić [1] ) and Dancy an English teacher, both Westerners, who are caught up in the events of the genocide. Unlike Hotel Rwanda , which was filmed in South Africa using South African actors, the film was shot in the original location of the scenes it portrays. Also, many survivors of the massacre were employed as part of the produc...

On Wed, 7 th October at 7pm in Taylor A19 the Legal Research Society will present its first movie night of this academic year with a screening of the film HOT FUZZ, a British action comedy with a huge portion of irony and black humour about the bigotry, hypocrisy and intrigues set in an (superficially) idyllic small town in Britain… Synopsis Sgt Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is a fiercely motivated and successful London copper who finds himself transferred to the sleepy town of Sandford . Almost everyone in this manicured little community seems to know and love each other. But if Sandford is a sleepy market town, it is home to some very real nightmares. Not that local coppers like loveable oaf Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) see anything suspicious about Sandford's absurd number of 'accidents'. Angel is no ordinary constable and launches an investigation, much to the amusement of his bumbling boss and his colleagues. Critics “Refreshingly British come...

The Legal Research Society is pleased to announce that our member Ian Taggart who recently obtained his PhD will give a talk on racial discrimination of travellers in the UK . Date: 3 rd June Time: 4:00-5:00 pm Venue: Taylor A17 Gypsies/Travellers in the United Kingdom remain the most socially excluded and discriminated sections of society that are subjected to racism on a daily basis. This presentation will examine the situation faced by Gypsies/Travellers based on primary research undertaken to inform the presenters’ doctoral thesis on Gypsies/Travellers titled Moving On – Again? This research was undertaken primarily to measure the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 and Race Relations Act 1976 as amended on prejudice and racism suffered by Gypsies/Travellers in Scotland, replicating previous research undertaken in 2000 by the Scottish Executive on Gypsies/Travellers lifestyles. The original research provides baseline data regarding prejudice and racism, that is parti...