Like here in Aotearoa, the uncodified nature of the United Kingdom constitution offers great flexibility — but it relies heavily on the executive to respect its conventions. Perhaps some lessons for home.
Isleworth Crown Court will close five of its fourteen courtrooms from March because of the cap on the number of "sitting days" the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is prepared to fund, according to a note from the court’s resident judge in west London.
OK, this really must stop. But we couldn’t resist sharing this collection sent in by a dear reader. Last one — promise. Nothing on Mr T next issue. Nada. Nothing. Hugest nothing ever. We have no cards left to play.
We mere mortals from the tent court on Great South Road in Papakura are yet again ahead of the judicial resourcefulness curve as plans to repurpose the local RSA into a new court are afoot. In keeping, really, with the ponderings of a former UK High Court judge telling The Times’ Crime and Justice Commission that pop-up courts could cut the case backlog and ‘line up community with justice’. HERE
The system has been ‘degraded’, ‘starved’, and ‘cut right to the bone’, according to Lord Burnett of Maldon. It is not really a good time for the justice system. Even stalwart supporters in the past have turned into doom-mongers. A case in point is Lord Burnett of Maldon, who until recently was the Lord Chief Justice, the senior judge in England and Wales. Burnett warned that the criminal justice system has become so degraded by budget cuts that it will take years to recover.
The Chinese zodiac assigns each year to one of twelve animals. This tradition originates from an ancient Chinese poem that recounts 12 mythical animals descending from heaven to usher in spring and a new harvest. In 2024, we embrace the Year of the Dragon. Alongside the animal zodiac, the Chinese New Year also associates each year with one of the five elements—earth, wood, fire, metal, and water. In 2024, wood takes the centre stage, making it the Year of the Wood Dragon.
For more than a decade from 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor had a strong claim to being the most powerful woman in America. She was the first woman to sit on the US Supreme Court from 1981 who strove for public consensus and consistently voted against repealing Roe v Wade. Sandra Day O’Connor, US Supreme Court judge, was born on March 26, 1930. She died of complications from dementia on December 1, 2023, aged 93. This has drawn from her obituary published in The Times, Saturday December 2, 2023.
Voters in a national referendum have overwhelmingly rejected the Labour government’s proposal to create a permanent body for indigenous people to advise parliament. The defeat is a blow for those looking to close the gap between Australia’s indigenous people and the rest of the population. Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, said the result should not divide Australians.
As I write this, the army reservist who opened fire in a bowling alley and then at a bar in Lewiston, Maine, killing 18 people, was found dead. I have close family members who live not far from the scene of the massacre. Like many people, I breathed a sigh of relief tonight knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone. He certainly was no terrorist. When tragedy strikes, we should be careful about how we describe it. Sanctifying the word terrorism as an obvious motive for every mass killing was a significant mistake made by Americans and their government after 9/11. The world is crawling with plenty of real terrorists, but we should pause before we reach for a word whose incantation can summon powerful and illiberal forces from within our institutions — and ourselves.
With great coaching by Jeff Maka, along with Tee’s (Tevita Eliesa) ongoing support, our MOJ Rugby Team has been training tirelessly to represent our ministry with pride, passion, and sportsmanship on the rugby field. Their positive development, dedication and success is not limited to the field; they also carry that same energy and enthusiasm back to the workplace and into their community.
You’ll find at the link below, the summary of the best thinking of a number of court professionals, with different subsets having reviewed many different possible scenarios of the future. This report highlights recent assessments and compares NACM assessments with those of the overall group. We are encouraged by the survey’s relevance even as changes are continuing to unfold in real time.
