scholarly journals Fit for Purpose? Exploring the Role of Freedom of Information Laws and Their Application for Watchdog Journalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110067
Author(s):  
Mária Žuffová
Keyword(s):  
Differential Treatment ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Press ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
The Law ◽  
Ground Delays ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
State Relations

Despite great volume of research into press–state relations, we know little about how journalists use information that has been generated through independent bureaucratic processes. The present study addresses this gap by investigating the role of freedom of information (FOI) laws in journalism practice. By surveying journalists ( n = 164), interviewing activists and civil servants ( n = 7) and submitting FOI requests to twenty-one ministerial departments in the United Kingdom, this study explores press-state interactions and the limits of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) application to advance the media’s monitorial function. The results show that journalists perceive FOIA as an essential tool for their work. However, they often described their experience as negative. They reported refusals lacking legal ground, delays, not responding at all or differential treatment. In response to gating access, journalists might also adopt tactics that use loopholes in the law. The press-state interactions, already marked by suspicion, thus, continue to perpetuate distrust. These findings might have implications for journalism practices, FOIAs’ potential for government oversight and democracy. In particular, the differential treatment of requests undermines equality under the law, one of the fundamental democratic principles. The study concludes with several policy recommendations for FOIA reform to meet journalists’ needs better.

scholarly journals Patterns of othering minority groups in telephone gatekeeping encounters in the Sheffield property market

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-149
Author(s):  
Nicole Baumgarten ◽  
Inke Du Bois ◽  
Victoria Gill
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Differential Treatment ◽  
Equitable Access ◽  
Property Market ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
Housing Discrimination ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Rapport Building

Research into housing discrimination has pointed out the pivotal role of estate agents as gatekeepers to the housing market. Telephone mystery shopping experiments were carried out with British estate agents to investigate how different British majority and minority groups – indexed by accented speech and ethnic personal names – are treated in those housing gatekeeping encounters. While there was little evidence for overt discrimination, linguistic micro-analyses of the data revealed differential treatment of ethnic majority and minority groups during the call procedure. The differential treatment was found in the estate agents’ call handling behaviours and related to the degree of personalisation of the service encounter in the form of either giving or withholding opportunities for rapport building with the caller. The findings show that ethnolinguistic discrimination in estate agents’ service provision affects the gatekeeping process independently of its outcome, with implications for the notion of equitable access to services and community participation in the United Kingdom.

The Lex Fori

2019 ◽  
pp. 172-194
Author(s):  
Adrian Briggs
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
International Law ◽  
Private International Law ◽  
English Court ◽  
Conflict Of Laws ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Foreign Law ◽  
The Law

This chapter examines of the role of the lex fori in English private international law before proceeding to examine the rules of the conflict of laws applicable in an English court. Issues for which the rules of the conflict of laws select the lex fori as the law to be applied include grounds for the dissolution (as distinct from nullity) of marriage, even if the marriage has little or nothing to do with the United Kingdom; or settlement of the distribution of assets in an insolvency even though there may be significant overseas elements. Where the rules of the conflict of laws select a foreign law, its application, even though it is proved to the satisfaction of the court, may be disrupted or derailed by a provision of the lex fori instead. The remainder of the chapter covers procedural issues; penal, revenue, and public laws; and public policy.

scholarly journals What Are the Legal Mechanisms for Seeking Solutions to Disparities in the Delivery of Care in the NHS and Where Does Liability Lie?

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-86
Author(s):  
Affifa Farrukh
Keyword(s):  
Inflammatory Bowel Disease ◽  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Bowel Disease ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Delivery Of Care ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Inflammatory Bowel

This review deals with the potential role of Commissions and Inquiries into delivering a just service to patients from ethnic minorities. It takes as an example the experience of people with inflammatory bowel disease and the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. Although there are many legal safeguards, the avenues open to groups of patients who experience discrimination, are limited and generally ineffective. Government inspired responses such as Commissions and Inquiries are inadequate and not fit for purpose.

Vertical restraints, the single market imperative and UK competition policy after Brexit

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 122-129
Author(s):  
Patrick F. Todd
Keyword(s):  
Competition Policy ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Single Market ◽  
Vertical Restraints ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Uk

After Brexit, the United Kingdom is unlikely to continue pursuing integration with other Member States of the European Union, including through competition policy. As a result, the time is ripe to reconsider the role of the single market imperative in competition law, in particular in relation to vertical restraints where the goal of market integration plays a pivotal role. This article shows that recent European vertical restraints decisions and case law, in particular concerning territorial and online restraints, have been motivated in whole or in part by the single market imperative (SMI). It then examines how the law in the UK might follow a different path post-Brexit, taking the Ping case as an example. However, a similar change is not likely to be forthcoming in relation to the law governing pricing restraints, which are not obviously linked to the SMI and which have been the subject of much enforcement in the UK both before and during the UK's membership of the EU.

A Supreme Court for the United Kingdom?

Legal Studies ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 24 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 36-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda Hale
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Question Mark ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Law ◽  
Consultation Paper ◽  
Law Commission

The Government's Consultation Paper does not have a question mark in its title. It does not purport to be a serious discussion of the role of a Supreme Court in a democracy. This is scarcely to be expected of such a document or its respondents, so I propose to respond in its own terms rather than on the loftier plane usually adopted by contributors to this journal. More unexpectedly, the Consultation Paper does not even put forward a serious set of options to consider. At the Law Commission, we always had (at least a metaphorical) question mark in our title because we almost always put forward two options which do not appear in this consultation: the ‘do nothing’ and the ‘let’s abolish it' options. Both have a lot to be said for them here.

scholarly journals CIDEM’s femicide archive and the process of gendered legal change in Bolivia

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-45
Author(s):  
Xandra Miguel-Lorenzo
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Legal Change ◽  
The Press ◽  
El Alto ◽  
The Law

This article analyses a spectacle, a wrestling match, that brings out the problem of violence against women and the role of activist organisations such as the Centro de Información y Desarrollo de la Mujer (CIDEM) to raise awareness among people and to influence the Bolivian state to change the gender of the law. In effect, it considers CIDEM’s vigilant role, by visualising cases of femicides in partnership with the press, is translated in wrestling matches. The article considers one such wrestling match I witnessed in El Alto, Bolivia, and argues that CIDEM’s vigilant role extends to overlooking and complementing the vigilant roles of the state and customary legal systems in El Alto that are unable to prevent femicides: women being killed by men because of their gender.

The Secularisation of the British Constitution

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Rivers
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
Minimal Impact ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Human Rights Act ◽  
Human Rights Act 1998 ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Relationship

In recent years, the relationship between law and religion has been subject to increased scholarly interest. In part this is the result of new laws protecting religious liberty and non-discrimination, and it may be that overall levels of litigation have increased as well. In all this activity, there are signs that the relationship between law and religion is changing. While unable to address every matter of detail, this article seeks to identify the underlying themes and trends. It starts by suggesting that the constitutional settlement achieved by the end of the nineteenth century has often been overlooked, religion only appearing in the guise of inadequately theorised commitments to individual liberty and equality. The article then considers the role of multiculturalism in promoting recent legal changes. However, the new commitment to multiculturalism cannot explain a number of features of the law: the minimal impact of the Human Rights Act 1998, the uncertain effect of equality legislation, an apparent rise in litigation in established areas of law and religion, and some striking cases in which acts have been found to be unlawful in surprising ways. In contrast, the article proposes a new secularisation thesis. The law is coming to treat religions as merely recreational and trivial. This has the effect of reducing the significance of religion as a matter of conscience, as legal system and as a context for public service. As a way of managing the ever-deepening forms of religious diversity present within the United Kingdom, such a secularisation strategy is implausible.1

Media Law

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Butt ◽  
Tim Lindsey
Keyword(s):  
Press Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
High Profile ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
Electronic Transactions ◽  
The Press ◽  
Information Law ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right

The Indonesian media is vibrant and expanding, although ownership concentration is a significant problem. This chapter describes the regulatory framework governing the media that was developed after Soeharto’s system of tight control was abolished. It pays particular attention to the Press Council and the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission. It also covers journalists’ associations, press freedom, censorship, and the right to privacy; and the law of defamation and related provisions in the law on electronic transactions and information. Freedom of information law and laws protecting state secrets are also covered. The chapter discusses two high-profile defamation cases that created controversy in Indonesia—those involving Prita Mulyasari and Tommy Soeharto. These reveal serious flaws in the current legal regime governing the media in Indonesia.

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