The Legal Research Society

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the launch of the report Ensuring Access to Environmental Justice in England and Wales at a seminar at King’s College hosted by the UK Environmental Law Association ( UKELA ). The Report is the result of deliberations of a Working Group chaired by the Hon Mr Justice Sullivan examining whether the current regime of judicial review in England and Wales fulfils the UK Government’s obligations under the 1998 Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. The Report deals with the ‘third pillar’ of the Aarhus Convention on access to justice, more specifically Article 9(4), which states that the procedures which the contracting parties rely on “ shall provide adequate and effective remedies, including injunctive relief as appropriate, and be fair equitable, timely and not prohibitively expensive.”. The Report concludes that the current law on costs, including the p...

Civil and Family Court Judges will no longer wear those fantastic wigs. From the BBC : The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, has announced there will be no change to the 18th Century-style garb in criminal courts. But judges and lawyers in family and civil courts have been ordered to ditch their wigs and wing-collars. The Judicial Communications Office said the changes would save £300,000 a year after a one-off cost of about £200,000. That would be spent on producing a new civil gown, a spokesman said. The decisions follow a £110,000 consultation paper on possible reforms, which was launched in May 2003. Lord Phillips said seasonal variations in the robes of High Court judges would be abolished. I wonder if Scots or Northern Irish judges will follow suit and ditch their wigs as well. Scottish court dress is very similar to English court dress, but there are notable differences. For example, Scottish advocates wear tail coats under their gowns, and wear white...