Bob Hepple

Current legal problems

Press and broadcasting freedom - does anyone have any rights to free speech?, Eric Barendt the Lord Chancellor in the 1990s, Lord Mackay of Clashfern flexibility and certainty in the 1990s, Donald Nicholls the crime of incest, Jennifer Temkin.

The Renewal of the Liberal Law Degree

I propose to examine the underlying philosophy of the recent First Report on Legal Education and Training by the Lord Chancellors Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct (ACLEC), and also some of the practical implications of the Report, particularly for university law schools. It was a stimulating experience to be able to work on this Report which reflects the collective wisdom and experience of all seventeen members of ACLEC and draws on the views expressed by its consultation panels and the large number of respondents to its consultation papers. It is important to stress that the Committees expertise is not simply that of the two law teachers on the Committee or the two barristers, two solicitors and two judges, but also that of the lay majority of the Committee whose experience is that of consumers of legal services, social researchers, educators and in other professions. In reflecting this breadth of experience, it is a Report unique in the annals of British legal education.

Forensic databases: implications of the cases of S and Marper.

The recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the cases of S and Marper highlights some of the crucial ethical and legal issues relating to privacy, informed consent and discrimination raised by the use of forensic databases. This article explains the judgment and discusses some broader questions, in particular the reliability of fingerprint and DNA evidence and its effectiveness in preventing and detecting crime. The approach of the European judges is strongly rights-based, in contrast to the unsophisticated utilitarianism of the English courts. Their main objection is to the ‘blanket and indiscriminate’ retention of all kinds of forensic bioinformation. Not only does this make it difficult to justify a compulsory population-wide database, but it will also require strict criteria for retention of each kind of bioinformation and adequate safeguards for both convicted and unconvicted individuals.

Intention to Create Legal Relations

The aim of this article is to examine the purpose and effect of the alleged rule of English law that an agreement supported by consideration will not be enforceable as a contract unless there is additional proof of an intention to create legal relations.

The race relations acts and the process of change

This article argues against the naive instrumentalism which sees the Race Relations Acts as having a specific ‘purpose’ or purposes against which their effectiveness can be measured. The measure cannot be racial disadvantage, because this is outside the scope of the law, nor can it be social patterns of discrimination against groups, because no legal definition can embrace these. Nor can the Acts be satisfactorily explained from an ‘educational’ perspective. Instead one may examine the functions of the law, either in Parsonian terms, as a mechanism for the ‘negotiation’ of change, or as containing symbols around which struggles for change can be organised. The law can be seen as simply one expression of power relations. From that perspective the tactical advantages of being linked to sexual politics may now be outweighed by the strategic objectives of: (1) improving the litigation process generally; and (2) concentrating on facilitative powers which will enable remedial action to be taken.

Ethnic Minorities at Work

BOB HEPPLE is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University, and Chairman of the Employment Sub-Group, Nottingham Commonwealth Citizens’ Consultative Committee. This article, apart from some revision and updating, is based on a background paper for a talk delivered at the Second Annual Race Relations Conference held in London on 21-2 September 1967. The aim of this Paper is to outline some of the major determinants of the situation in business and employment of ethnic minorities in Britain in relation to the theme of research and its translation into action. At the end a few tenative conclusions of relevance to future research and action are put forward.

Book Reviews : Fighting Discrimination in Employment in Occupation. By INTER NATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE (Geneva, International Labour Office, 1968). vii + 208 pp. 5s. 3d

of the Teacher in a Multi-Racial School’-similarly clarify many points on which hitherto there has been much muddled thinking. His analysis (pp. 60-6) of various sources of the ’serious strains’ which Circular 7/65 says arise if the proportion of immigrant children in a school or class exceeds one third, is an example in point. In this connection, Mr. Bowker is bold enough to point out that ’an obvious source of strain in the classroom, not referred to in the ...