Murmurings

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-35
Author(s):  
Ian Ward

This chapter focusses on David Hare’s Murmuring Judges; part of his critically acclaimed ‘State of the Nation’ trilogy, produced in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In each of these plays, Hare focussed his attention on the seeming dysfunctionality of particular public institutions. The other two plays in the set examined the Church of England and the Labour Party. Murmuring Judges, as the title suggests, focusses its attention on the legal profession; more closely still the Bar and the police. Hare’s critique of legal practice, and education, chimed with contemporary movements in ‘critical legal studies’ or CLS, as it became known. The CLS movement sought to uncover the ‘politics of the law’, and its consequence, arguing that its roots could be located in the modern law school. This chapter brings this claim and Hare’s play into alignment.

1993 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
William T. Gibson

The debate on nepotism in the eighteenth century has developed more fully in the last five than in the preceding fifty years. Within the emergent professions nepotism was difficult to distinguish from the hereditary nature of recruitment into the Church, the law, and the army. The debate on nepotism in the Church has produced contrasting views, one regarding nepotism as a feature of the corruption and abuse that dogged the Church after 1714, the other suggesting that nepotism not only served a specific function, as it did among the laity, but was accorded moral legitimacy by contemporaries. The article suggests that nepotism took its place within the structure of patronage which included the recommendation of deserving clergy to the purveyors of patronage and the nomination of men of talent from the universities to the households of bishops.


2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Helmholz

Most recent historians have expressed a negative opinion of the quality of legal education at the English universities between 1400 and 1650. The academic study of law at Oxford and Cambridge, they have stated, was easy, antiquated and impractical. The curriculum had not changed from the form it assumed in the thirteenth century, and it did little to prepare students for their careers. This article challenges that opinion by examining the inner nature of the ius commune, the law that was applied in the courts of the church, and also by examining some of the works of practice compiled by English civilians during the period. Those works show that the negative opinion rests in part upon a misunderstanding of the nature of legal practice during earlier centuries. In fact, concentration on the texts of the Roman and canon laws, as old-fashioned as it seems to us, was well suited for the tasks advocates and judges would face once they left the academy. It also provided the stimulus needed for advance in the law of the church itself; their legal education made available to potential advocates and judges skills that would permit a sophisticated application of the ius commune, one better suited to their times. The article provides evidence of how this happened.1


1975 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 1-115 ◽  

Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett was born in Kensington, London, on 18 November 1897. His father, Arthur Stuart Blackett, was a stockbroker, although apparently not by inclination since his great interests were in literature and nature. Patrick was the only boy but had an elder and younger sister; one trained and practised as an architect in the 1920s, until she married, and the other became an industrial psychologist and then a psychoanalyst. For the previous two generations the family had been associated with the Church of England. Patrick’s grandfather had been Vicar of the church in Woburn Square (now demolished), and was the Vicar of St Andrew’s, Croydon, at the time of his death. He had twice married and Arthur Stuart was one of a large family, two of whom went into the Church, whilst another became a missionary in India. Patrick’s great-grandfather came from Hamsterley in Co. Durham of a farming family. He moved to London and his children were baptised in St Saviour’s Church, Southwark (now Southwark Cathedral). The future career and interests of Patrick seem to have more association with his maternal descent. His mother, Caroline Frances Maynard, was the daughter of Major Charles Maynard, R.A., who served in India at the time of the Indian Mutiny. William Maynard, a brother of Charles, was also associated with India as a tea planter. The source of Patrick’s deep interest in Indian affairs has this association; so does his early naval career and his continued absorption in military affairs—in addition to the army career of his grandfather there was an earlier tradition of naval service in the Maynard family.


Author(s):  
Martin Partington

This chapter discusses the role both of those professionally qualified to practise law and of other groups who provide legal services but who are not formally qualified as lawyers. It examines how regulation of legal services providers has changed. It notes new forms of legal practice. It considers the adjudicators and other dispute resolvers who play a significant role in the working of the legal system. It reflects on the contribution made by law teachers, in universities and in private colleges, to the formation of the legal profession and to the practice of the law.


Author(s):  
Imogen Moore ◽  
Craig Newbery-Jones

Starting legal studies is an exciting time. However, the student might also feel a bit apprehensive about commencing a new and challenging programme of study, joining a new institution, approaching new ways of working, facing new expectations, and meeting new people. Whether they are moving away from home for the first time, changing degree courses or changing their career, some nerves and concerns are completely natural. This chapter looks at both the transition to university and an introduction to the law school itself. It explores some of the different challenges that may be faced and provides strategies to meet those challenges. It also explains a bit more about the law school and the early days to help the student to settle in as quickly as possible.


Author(s):  
Martin Partington

This chapter discusses the role both of those professionally qualified to practise law—solicitors and barristers—and of other groups who provide legal/advice services but who do not have professional legal qualifications. It examines how regulation of legal services providers is changing. It notes new forms of legal practice. It also considers how use of artificial intelligence may change the ways in which legal services are delivered. It reflects on the adjudicators and other dispute resolvers who play a significant role in the working of the legal system. It reflects on the contribution to legal education made by law teachers, in universities and in private colleges, to the formation of the legal profession and to the practice of the law.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 397-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kearns

This essay argues that the 1675 conviction of John Taylor by the Court of King's Bench for slandering God reveals Chief Justice Matthew Hale implementing a model of conjoint law-making between courts, Parliament, and crown that gave pre-eminent power to the common lawyers, and none to the Church of England. In doing so, it counters the prevailing literature on Restoration English law, which has treated the law as hierarchical, with the common lawyers subordinate to the sovereign. Rather than following statute or ecclesiastical law, which emphasised the spiritual nature of crimes like Taylor's, Hale located Taylor's offence in the exclusively temporal common law jurisdiction of defamation, which existed largely outside of monarchical purview. Hale's judgment reflected his rhetoric of judicial office outside the courtroom, where he argued the judiciary worked alongside King and Parliament in making law, but were not subservient to these institutions, for common lawyers relied on sources of law beyond sovereign-made statute. The language of sovereignty as hierarchical was thus a factional attack on an independent common law, an attempt to subordinate the common lawyers to the crown that was resisted by the lawyers like Hale in his rhetoric and exercise of office, and should not ground accounts of the Restoration regime.


Author(s):  
Christopher Grout*

Abstract The extent to which members of the clergy are considered ‘employees’ for the purposes of secular employment and equality legislation has been the subject of much discussion, but essentially remains a fact sensitive question. The Equality Act 2010 (‘the 2010 Act’) seeks to prevent discrimination on the basis of nine ‘protected characteristics’. While recognizing that the application of the 2010 Act to the variety of clergy offices is ‘not straightforward’, the Church of England (‘the Church’) has opined that an equitable approach to clergy appointments is to proceed as if they were subject to the provisions of the 2010 Act. What follows is in`tended to be a thorough review of the eligibility criteria for clergy appointment in the Church to assess their compatibility with the requirements of the 2010 Act. In addition, particular consideration will be given to Schedule 9(2) to the 2010 Act which makes specific provision relating to religious requirements concerning the protected characteristics of sex, sexual orientation, and marriage and civil partnership. In short, where the employment is for the purposes of an organized religion, such as the Church, requirements which relate to these protected characteristics will not constitute discrimination where they engage the ‘compliance or non-conflict principle’. What these principles mean and how they might operate in practice is discussed below, taking into account the likely canonical and theological justifications for discriminating against certain individuals. Whether the law strikes the right balance between, on the one hand protecting clergy and, on the other, providing the Church with the autonomy to act in accordance with its established doctrine, will be explored in the final analysis.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document