Category: Law

Concerns over maintaining the confidentiality of information regarding Britain’s national security have parallelled the changing world of communications and international travel. The first Official Secrets Act was passed in 1889 with the aim of deterring traitors and foreign spies and each iteration  ~ in 1911, 1920, 1939 and 1989 ~ has increasingly tightened up the regulations to take account of new technology and world situations.

The current Act (1989) applies to ‘Crown Servants’, who include the armed forces, police, the civil service, intelligence agencies, Parliament and diplomats. It also applies to ‘Government Contractors’ and they may be asked to sign a document confirming their acknowledgement that they may be prosecuted if they fall foul of the Act. The restrictions are lifelong and the penalty is up to two years in prison or a fine. Guilt is determined by how much damage is judged to have been done to the country.

In 2021 there are moves to update and strengthen the Act again, with prison sentences leaping up to 14 years. If voted in, some journalists fear that it could prevent them from speaking to ‘whistleblowers’. It has long been suspected that the Act is partially to stop embarrassing or even scandalous information coming out about government activities. Perish the thought.

(Image: Peter O’Connor aka anemoneprojectors at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0)

One of the achievements of Alfred the Great (849-899), King of Wessex, was to compile ‘The Dōmbōc’ (The Doom Book) in c.886-93. It states the laws he deemed to be fair and relevant for his subjects, selecting from and editing existing laws in the kingdoms of Wessex, Kent and Mercia, along with the Bible’s Ten Commandments. This laid the foundations of the English Constitution.

Life then was agrarian, feudal and hand-to-mouth and the laws reflect this. They concern various forms of violence (including to and between the clergy), ownership of cattle and slaves, with punishments ranging from fines to ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth..’ and, of course, to “perish by death”. There were no state prisons, so there is no mention of being sent to jail.

Alfred wanted equal justice for all, no matter how rich or poor someone was, so that the laws had the support of the people. While some punishments were harsh enough to make anyone think twice before acting shamefully, others sought to directly produce good behaviour. For example, one law states:

“If the stray cattle of another man come to thy hand, though it be thy foe, make it known to him.”

(Image: pixabay.com)

Both World Wars, by producing many more physically and mentally disabled people than before, resulted in the creation of laws and regulations designed to protect the disabled from discrimination and proactively make adjustments to assist them. Today it is unthinkable to have, for example, a building open to the public that does not have provision for disabled access, as in this ingenious solution by the Institution of Civil Engineers in central London:

World War 2 also created labour shortages, so laws were passed to increase the opportunities for the disabled to be in employment. By the 1970s, more effort was being put into integrating disabled people into mainstream education and workplaces. Attitudes were changing.

However, there was still more that could be done and persistent campaigning eventually succeeded. The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 and its subsequent amendments aimed to cover the spheres of schools, jobs, homes, property ownership, transport, public services and dealing with officialdom. This Act was superseded by The Equality Act of 2010 (in all but Northern Ireland), which took under its umbrella a whole host of anti-discrimination laws, not just related to disability.

(Image: David Hawgood at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Common law embodies the natural instinct towards knowing what is right (‘lawful’) and wrong (‘unlawful’) and the appropriate degree of punishment that should be given to someone who is found guilty by an independent judge and jury. In essence, common law, based on our Christian values, demands that you do no harm and cause no loss.

Government and lawyers would sometimes have us believe that common law is obsolete, but in reality it is ever-present since it is ‘the law of the land’, Nevertheless, a mass of Parliamentary legislation has been introduced in the last 150 years aiming to supersede common law and state precisely what is ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ (as opposed to ‘lawful’/’unlawful’). However, the common law system comes into play when a judge makes an interpretation of a point of law, setting a ‘judicial precedent’.

A term which persisted until the late 20th century was ‘common law wife’, meaning a woman who had lived with a man as his wife even though they had not had a ‘legal’ marriage ceremony. Under common law, it was thought fair that she should inherit the man’s property after his death, but this was not laid down in statute law as a right.

(Image: succo at needpix.com / CC0)

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

This children’s saying used to be the level-headed reply in any argument where one side has resorted to name-calling and slander. However, adults sometimes have an entirely different viewpoint, particularly if those nasty words have a detrimental effect upon their livelihood or their standing in the community.

Until the 16th century such matters might have resulted in fisticuffs or a formal arbitration by a clergyman who could demand an act of repentance from the wrongdoer. Meanwhile, in the military and the upper classes, the practice of duelling with pistols at dawn to restore one’s honour persisted until it was banned in 1844 under the amended Articles of War.

The burgeoning print industry introduced the phenomenon of libel, a much more enduring and widespread attack on someone’s character or deeds. The public nature of this offence saw its first entry into the law courts in 1507. This opened the floodgates and led to today’s huge compensation claims. The Defamation Act of 2013 sought to rein back the number of cases by setting a higher threshold for the apparent harm caused to the victim, requiring that this be ‘serious’, not merely emotional.

(Image: pxfuel.com / CC0)

The Courts Act of 1971 established the network of Crown Courts and circuit judges in England and Wales, streamlining the system in a push to modernise. Northern Ireland has its own Crown Courts and Scotland has its High Courts of Justiciary. All of these courts deal with serious crimes such as treason, murder, rape, kidnapping and terrorism, and have juries. Sentencing options include life imprisonment.

The Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for engaging and advising Crown Prosecutors and preparing files well enough to avoid ‘cracked trials’ (trials where something goes awry on the day, e.g. the defendant changes his/her plea to guilty, or the Prosecutor has no evidence). The defendant is represented by a barrister and each side calls and questions witnesses.

The jury is addressed by the Prosecutor, defendant’s barrister and the judge, who must ensure the case is properly explained. The foreman of the jury stands up and gives the jury’s verdict after they have returned from discussing their views with each other. If found guilty, the defendant is escorted straight to the cells. There is a public gallery for interested persons and furthermore, the Crown Court (Recording and Broadcasting) Order 2020 now permits the televising of judges’ sentencing remarks.

(Image of York Crown Court: Nilfanion at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Since the 10th century there have been laws on weights and measures to minimise differences from one town to another in, for instance, the quality and width of woollen cloth, the size of an acre or a measure of ale. Today, a Trading Standards Officer (TSO) covers various aspects of commerce and ‘weights and measures’ is but one of many issues, from animal welfare to product labelling.

Although the numerous business and consumer protection laws are national, Trading Standards departments are operated by local County, City or Borough Councils. The downside of this is that the levels of monitoring, guidance and prosecution are dependent upon those councils’ budgets. However, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute provides UK-wide advice services, accreditation for businesses and training for TSOs.

Over 3 million British subjects, mainly the elderly, fall victim to scammers each year, making liaison with banks and support services a significant part of a TSO’s work. Cheats also endanger the lives of children through, for example, the sale of sub-standard toys at Christmas, or introducing them to cheap counterfeit cigarettes. The TSOs are in some ways the unsung heroes of the economy, working in the background to ensure fairness and safety in the marketplace.

(Image: Gerald England at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Queen Eleanor (1122-1204), mother of King Richard I ‘the Lionheart’ (1157-99), ruled England in his absence on Crusade and she established maritime law circa 1190, a concept she had observed on a French island. As Britain’s sea-faring activities increased in the following centuries, practitioners of this law formed an important, specialist sector of the legal profession.

Maritime, or admiralty, law was initially solely concerned with ships engaged in import and export. It now encompasses all issues related to ships and shipping, including ownership, the crew, collisions, piracy, salvage, carriage of cargo and passengers, unmanned vessels and wrecks, environmental liability and pollution. Territorial matters are dealt with by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

It is considered far better to settle disputes through arbitration than to take them to the Admiralty Court and the London Maritime Arbitrators Association is the world leader in this. A ship itself can be arrested and detained by a Customs Officer if it is seen to be the ‘instrument of mischief’ in a particular incident. It may need to be sold to cover the claim but if it has sunk or is otherwise unavailable, a ‘sister ship’ under the same ownership can be arrested instead.

(Image: Carl Davies at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Solicitors are the British citizen’s first port-of-call for any legal matter. That could be moving house, determining custody of children, dealing with a deceased person’s estate or a dispute with an employer or a neighbour, for instance. Some of the simpler things can be done online nowadays, but using a solicitor is generally the preferred option for the more complex procedures, like criminal litigation.

As the range of legalities is so wide, many solicitors specialise in one field, such as conveyancing. Businesses also use solicitors and may employ them in-house to work on specific matters relating to tax or corporate regulations.

Many people choose a solicitor on recommendation by friends or family and cost is always a factor because their fees are often regarded as expensive. To counter this, since the 1990s there have been ‘no-win-no-fee’ deals which apply to cases where some kind of financial compensation is being claimed. The idea is that if the solicitor fails to extract any payment from an allegedly culpable individual or company for, say, an injury, then there is no fee charged. If the solicitor succeeds, however, then the law states that their fee must not be more than 25% of the moneys received.

(Image: Jaggery at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

After the dust of the Industrial Revolution had settled, there began to be voices heard about declining morals and their effect on children. By the late 1800s the concept had evolved of childhood being an important developmental stage to be protected and cherished. With that came the establishment of special courts to deal solely with our young people, who may well have been led astray by adult criminals.

Today these are the Youth Courts, part of the magistrate system. There is no jury, no media reporting and no public audience. Defendants aged from 10 to 17 are dealt with in these Courts, where they are questioned either by three magistrates or one district judge. Rather than using “Miss..” or “Master..”, the youngsters are addressed by their first name. A parent or guardian must sit with them unless they are aged 16 or 17.

The crimes committed are rarely classified as ‘serious’, e.g. murder, but if they are, a Crown Court appearance is the next stage. Sentencing in those cases may be as severe as with adult criminals, but in most Youth Court convictions the punishment is accompanied by some sort of therapy or training aimed at redirecting these youngsters away from their criminal tendencies.

(Image: pickpik.com / Public domain)