THIS ISSUE
Care proceedings and public interest were centre stage in a recent case involving the BBC. Nicholas Dobson reports
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Johnson v FirstRand Bank signals a return to orthodoxy on fiduciary duties & common law bribery, writes Ceri Morgan
Complications abound on which laws govern arbitration clauses: Guy Pendell calls for harmonisation across jurisdictions
Litigation funding must be ethical, transparent & aligned with the interests of those it is meant to serve: Geoff Dover sets out a better way forward
Guy Pendell, chair of the International Chamber of Commerce UK’s Arbitration & ADR Committee and partner at CMS, calls for harmonisation in the laws governing arbitration agreements across jurisdictions
Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs, highlights the growing concern over non-standard drugs in family law proceedings
Mark Pawlowski dips into two classic films depicting good lawyering in class actions involving river pollution
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Jurit LLP—Caroline Williams
Private wealth and tax team welcomes cross-border specialist as consultant
Freeths—Michelle Kirkland Elias
International hospitality and leisure specialist joins corporate team as partner
Flint Bishop—Deborah Niven
Firm appoints head of intellectual property to drive northern growth
NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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