The idea is that it will be like Ben Goldacre's Bad Science newspaper column, though about legal issues rather than science issues.
(I would like to think of it as an internet column, and I will be very flattered if you do so too; but it is really a blog, with a RSS feed, and so on.)
It will be interesting to see how it goes.
I am already writing a book on "Bad Law" about six or so particular areas of substantive law.
A weekly blog will allow me to dissect any legal story in the news, just as I did with the Paul Clarke case.
The first one should be posted on Tuesday, and it will be a balanced and source-based investigation of the recent case where Judge Cherie Booth QC was criticised for her sentencing comments regarding the defendant's religious beliefs.
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7 comment(s):
Congrats on the column. excellent news.
I shall look forward to the article about Ms B QC.
Talking of whom (if fictionalized), I am also looking forward to the fictionalized version in the Polanski film of Robert Harris' The Ghost Writer
Congratulations from me too. Sounds really good and looking forward to reading...
Congrats dude, happy for you.
Will they be linked to from here, or have we got to alter our feeds?
Thanks for these nice comments :-)
I will still be blogging here, and I expect to reproduce each The Lawyer blogpost over here after a couple of days.
A Bad Law column and a Bad Law book in the works... can Ben Goldacre sue? :)
I know this is an old item, but it seems to me that an update might be required in the light of the claim that the NSS have made that their complaint was partially upheld.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/jun/21/complaint-cherie-booth-sentence
There are a couple of important points here. The first is the confidential (or otherwise) nature of the letter from the OJC to the NSS and, of course, the fact this was not in the report that was made public. The second is over whether such advice that Cherie Booth received should be explicitly in the sentencing guidelines.
As it is, the NSS were made to look like fools, and there were blogs and articles to that effect. It now looks like at least part of those conclusions should be reviewed.
nb. I rather doubt that, in raising their complaint, the NSS were after a formal disciplining on Cherie Booth, but rather clarification that religious belief, as such, should play no part in sentencing (as opposed to prior behaviour).
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