Absolvitor: Scots Law Online

With the Scottish Premier League kicking off on Saturday 9 August, Strathclyde Police has teamed up with partners across North Lanarkshire to launch a poster campaign aimed at tackling discrimination and hate crime: “We’re On The Ball.”

Posters will be displayed in public places across North Lanarkshire and will help reinforce key messages of the nation-wide “Show Racism the Red Card” which campaigns against racism in football and society.

But it’s not just about racism. The “We’re On The Ball” campaign will highlight the fact that discrimination and hate crime might not just be on grounds of race alone; it could also be about age, disability, gender, religious belief or sexual orientation.

The posters, which have been designed by officers from the community safety department at Wishaw, will encourage local communities to report any incidents of this type to the police (via their local police office or the online reporting facility at www.strathclyde.police.uk) or to North Lanarkshire First Stop Shop.

The campaign is backed by North Lanarkshire Council, NHS Lanarkshire, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, Broadwood Stadium Management, Show Racism the Red Card, Crimestoppers and the four senior football clubs in the area – Motherwell FC, Airdrie United FC, Albion Rovers FC and Clyde FC.

Crime Reduction Officer Dougie Denholm from Wishaw Police Office hopes that the posters will make people think twice about their actions and how they treat others. He said:

“As football is such a huge passion for so many people in the West of Scotland, we thought that it would be a good idea to base the posters on a football theme.”

“Football is a marvellous medium for delivering such an important message to local communities and we are therefore extremely thankful that all four senior football clubs in North Lanarkshire are supporting our work.”

You may not have known it, but there is already a legal limerick on Absolvitor: Scots Law Online – which was quite a hit on Wikipedia for a while.

So, when I came across a dedicated “absolvitor” limerick, I knew I just had to share:

The absolvitor limerick, by Chris Young

The defender now seeks a decree
Of absolvitor, granting “that he
Be absolved”. I ask, coyly,
The court to assoilzie
My client and let him go free.

This limerick was found on the Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form (OEDILF) website.

A warm welcome to the most recent firm to be added to our Law Firms Directory. Greenfox Solicitors from Wick specialise in residential conveyancing and are one of the few firms in Scotland to be named after a fictional animal. Nice logo, too!

Morag Driscoll, director of the Scottish Child Law Centre has slated plans to “streamline” the children’s hearings system. The Herald reports her concerns that amalgamating reporters, safeguarders and panel members is to undermine “essential legal distance”.

She is quoted as saying:
“We would never do this in an adult system of justice – it would be regarded as unacceptable. The equivalent would be amalgamating a district court with the procurator fiscal and the social workers who provide the reports.”

“The safeguarder is often the only person putting the child’s view, .. That is often a child whose life experience has been being let down by every adult in sight. They don’t trust easily. Under these plans safeguarders won’t be independent and they must be. I think many safeguarders would flatly refuse to do it.”

“We have a unique system. It is not perfect but it is a darn sight better then what happens in many other areas and we jeopardise it at our peril. Would you ever do this in adult system of justice? Why are children always getting the cheap end of the stick?”

Liberal Democrat Councillor Fraser Macpherson, of Dundee City Council has been in talks with a senior Council legal officer regarding the viability of a legal challenge to the decision to close four Dundee Post Offices, he revealed in the pages of his own blog.

Cllr Macpherson is quoted as saying, “I believe the so called consultation process over the closure proposals was little more than a sham…”

“I think the consultation process was fatally flawed, partly in relation to the inappropriately short consultation period of just six weeks. Although the Greater London Authority’s recent attempt to force judicial review in relation to London Post Office closures was rejected by the High Court, what has become clear is that the Cabinet Office’s own guidance states that 12 weeks minimum is good practice for public consultations and therefore Post Office Limited’s six week consultation falls far short of such good practice.

Absolvitor: Scots Law Online will continue to follow this matter with interest, but notes (for the time being) that many of the complaints regarding the consultation which would be raised by Dundee City Council as part of any judicial process are exactly the same things which the good people of Scotland say about local authorities’ own consultations on, for example, school closures. And what’s good for the goose …

The United States Congress passed legislation on Friday that allows Libya to settle all pending lawsuits by victims of terrorism. Under the arrangement, Libya will place money into a fund to compensate victims and their families, including those who have not already been awarded compensation in connection to the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie.

Libya is to provide about 800 million dollars for compensation into the fund to settle existing lawsuits and will, in return, be immune from any further legal action.

The agreement is a key part of Libya’s rehabilitation into the United States’ good books which began in 2003 with an agreement to surrender all of its weapons of mass destruction programmes (Libya’s, not the United States’).

However, not everyone is happy with the proposal. In particular, the US law firm Crowell & Moring LLP represents a number of families who have already obtained judgements against Libya in the total sum of Six Billion Dollars. Said judgements are effectively overturned when the new law, the “Libyan Claims Resolution Bill”, comes into force with President Bush’s signature.

The World Socialist Web Site (no, really) poses the question, in the light of the Glasgow East bye-election (sic), “just how long it will be before Tommy Sheridan joins the Scottish Nationalist Party?”

Citing recent public comments made by Mr. Sheridan as an attempt to woo the Scottish Nationalist Party, the author of the piece, Steve James, claims “He [Sheridan] clearly has aspirations to revive his parliamentary career. Initially, he is attempting to do that by aligning Solidarity as close as possible with the SNP and, should circumstances allow, by joining it and acting as its left face.”

As we know from recent experience, Mr. Sheridan is not afraid to resort to litigation and therefore, I’ll be extra careful with what I say. I must confess, my first reaction was that of surprise and disbelief. Then I had a quick peek at the Solidarity website, only to discover that the home page leads with a quote from Mr. Sheridan which begins: “This is a historic victory in Glasgow East for the SNP and I congratulate John Mason. Let us be clear it is a victory for a party to the left of Labour.”

The Scottish Government has launched a consultation, “Strengthening for the Future” which includes proposals to reform and streamline Scotland’s Children’s Hearings system and to improve the support given to vulnerable young people. The consultation document proposes plans to create a single national body which will bring together the work of the Children’s Reporter service, the delivery and administration of Children’s Hearings, and the recruitment and training given to panel members. It will also assist the work of safeguarders.

The Minister for Children and Early Years, Adam Ingram, is quoted as saying:
“Our distinctive Children’s Hearing’s system – which is recognised by experts across the world – makes a huge difference to young people’s lives, guiding them through difficult times, behaviour and circumstances.

“This may include ensuring appropriate services are in place to help vulnerable children who have been abused or neglected, or even those who have committed a crime so that they can get their lives back on track.

“By improving support for those who deliver that system, both professionals and panel members, they can in turn focus their skills on creating a better and brighter future for the children who need our help.

“The creation of the single national body will also allow us to reduce bureaucracy in the system while ensuring services continue to be delivered locally and with great consistency in decision-making for the benefit of everyone involved.”

The consultation runs until the end of October.

Just a brief note to let you know that, as of 29 July 2008, Nominet have altered their dispute resolution service’s policy and procedures, including the introdution of a new, cheaper “summary decision” option.

Details of how to make those cyber-squatters feel the pain can be found on Nominet’s Summary of changes to the DRS Policy and Procedure, “Less squatters’ rights? Nominet lowers the cost of complaining” on Naked Law; or “Nominet DRS changes go live today” from the IPKat.

The High Court has awarded victory to a Sikh schoolgirl who was excluded from school for wearing a religious bangle, upholding a 25-year-old Law Lords ruling allowing Sikhs to wear items representing their faith.

The human rights group Liberty, representing 14-year-old Sarika Singh, successfully argued that Aberdare Girls’ School in South Wales breached race relations and equality laws by excluding her since November 2007 for wearing the kara (a plain single bangle widely accepted as a central tenet of the Sikh race and religion).

Liberty filed the legal challenge in the High Court on 19 December 2007 which argued that the Governing Body of the Aberdare Girls’ School had indirectly discriminated on the grounds of race contrary to the Race Relations Act 1976; breached the duty to promote equality under s71 Race Relations Act 1976; indirectly discriminated on the ground of religion or belief contrary to the Equality Act 2006; and breached the Human Rights Act 1998 Article 8 (the right to a private life).

Anna Fairclough, Liberty’s Legal Officer representing the Singhs, said:
“This common sense judgment makes clear you must have a very good reason before interfering with someone’s religious freedom. Our great British traditions of religious tolerance and race equality have been rightly upheld today.”

Noting that schools have a role to play in developing principles of religious and racial tolerance in its pupils, Mr Justice Silber said in his judgment:
“Without those principles being adopted in a school, it is difficult to see how a cohesive and tolerant multi-cultural society can be built in this country … I hope that the school will take all possible steps to ensure first that [she] can become quickly assimilated again within the school and second that there will be no bullying of her for racial or religious reasons.”

Singh, of mixed Welsh/Punjabi origin, has been raised in the Sikh faith and was the only Sikh at the Aberdare Girls’ School. The school’s uniform policy prohibits the wearing of any jewellery other than a wrist watch and plain ear studs. When the school noticed that Singh was wearing the kara, she was isolated for two months, including during meals and physical education classes despite her offer to remove or cover the Kara during exercise, before being excluded entirely in November 2007.

The BBC News website has a good summary of recent School and religious symbol cases and, even on a cursory read, is is clear that they lack a cohesive thread. It is difficult to see why a kara bracelet is allowed, but a “purity ring” is not; or why jilbabs may be banned, but hijabs may not.

BTW, I would recommend not searching for the term “kara” on Google images – especially if your employers are interested in the kind of images you view on your work PC. Don’t say i didn’t warn you!