A YEAR IN THE LAW 2015-16
of criminal offences to appeal their deportations from inside the United Kingdom. Under the new rule, foreign nationals can now be deported and instructed to commence the appeal from their country of origin. An important precedent was also established by this year’s ‘celebrity threesome’ case, in which the Supreme Court upheld an injunction banning the UK media from reporting on the sexual escapades of an olive-oil loving celebrity, even though the name of that celebrity and the scurrilous details of the story were all over the Internet and foreign media outlets. The journalists arguing for the right to report claimed that the landscape in which they operate has been transformed by the Internet, but the Supreme Court judges asserted the continuity of traditional legal values regarding privacy. The case has bolstered courts’ powers to grant injunctions and strengthened protections for celebrities trying to keep their personal lives out of the spotlight – especially those with children. In other news, Chagos islanders – who were forcibly evicted from their homes in the Indian Ocean in 1971 to make way for a US military base – lost their challenge to overturn a resettlement ban in the Supreme Court, meaning that their fight to return home continues. What to look out for in 2017 Aspiring lawyers should keep a close eye on further changes to training announced by the SRA and BSB, although it will likely be years before
charter’), which proposes to allow intelligence agencies to hack the phones, computers and other devices of citizens without needing the permission of a judge, and to force all internet service providers to store customers’ ‘internet connection records’ – a vague term which the government has so far neglected to define or clarify further. Necessary security measure or Orwellian assault on privacy? Whatever your view, the progress of this bill will be one of the most important legal developments to look out for over the next year. Turning to legislation which successfully came into force this year, it is now mandatory for businesses employing over 250 people to calculate and publicise any gender pay gaps at their organisations. The government also launched a new flat-rate pension and raised the national minimum wage, rebranding it the Living Wage in the process (although it has still not reached the level of what is actually meant by a ‘living wage’). The increase prompted a range of responses from many employers, which scrambled to remove other employment benefits to offset the cost so that they don’t end up paying any more than before. Case in point As ever, important judgments grabbed the headlines this year. The Court of Appeal set a legal precedent when it sided with the Home Office in the first legal challenge against the government’s ‘deport first, appeal later’ policy, which removes the right of foreign nationals convicted
any major change is implemented. Beyond that, businesses, firms and law makers will have their eyes trained on the timetable for Brexit and the commencement of negotiations; as a trusted legal adviser in training, you should certainly be doing the same. Meanwhile, the legal aid crisis looks set to continue by a government which appears to have left vulnerable people and the lawyers who represent them off its radar. It will also be interesting to watch how the solicitor apprenticeship pathway develops over the next year, as the first cohorts continue on the long road to eventual qualification. And as a generational shift in attitudes within the legal profession becomes increasingly pronounced, calls for change and greater equality may only grow louder. No one can predict exactly how these issues will play out in the year ahead, or which new ones will arise, but those with serious ambitions of becoming lawyers themselves should stay on top of the latest developments.
By Josh Richman
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