REUTERS |
October 14, 2016

The Criminal Finances Bill – overloading the statute book?

The Criminal Finances Bill (CFB) was published on 13 October 2016. The CFB  contains four parts: part one amending and updating the provisions of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA), part two making similar updates to terrorist finance legislation, part three creating two new offences of failure to prevent tax evasion, and part four covering some ancillary matters. Although the CFB offers one innovative measure, expanding the range of failure to prevent offences (although not in respect of financial crime), many of the proposed measures seem unnecessary. Continue reading →

REUTERS |
October 7, 2016

Zombie cases: why suing the unknown can make sense

Those of you who do not read the popular press or have been stuck on a desert island for the past few years will not know Pippa Middleton. Ms Middleton is the younger sister of Catherine ( Kate) Middleton, now Duchess of Cambridge and wife to the future heir to the throne of the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and Head of the Commonwealth. I digress.

In 2016 Pippa Middleton’s phone was hacked and The Sun newspaper was good enough to report the fact that it had been approached by the hacker who claimed to have obtained over 3000 images from Ms Middleton’s account for which he was asking for the tidy sum of £50,000.  An alleged hacker has been arrested but the criminal justice system has taken its usual approach to such matters which means that evidence must be obtained and reviewed in the context of the Code for Crown Prosecutor’s before a decision is made upon whether to charge the relevant person or persons for the theft of the data. The application of the evidential and public interest tests, obviously, takes time. Continue reading →

REUTERS |
September 30, 2016

The Beautiful game

The past week has seen the slow release of numerous allegations of improper conduct in football, which has resulted in sackings, calls for further investigation and the resignation of the England Manager, Sam Allardyce after one game in charge in what he described as “an error of judgement on my behalf“.

Although the various allegations, all of which remain unproven, have been described as “shocking” or with similar adjectives in various media sources, there appears to be far less surprise among those who follow football. Continue reading →

REUTERS |
September 23, 2016

The consultation on the Fourth Money Laundering Directive

On the 15th September 2016, HM Treasury published a Consultation on the Fourth Money Laundering Directive, inviting views and evidence to inform government on the transposition of the directive into UK law.

Relevant businesses and individuals in the UK are currently subject to the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 (3MLD) which seeks to mitigate the risks of money laundering and terrorist finance. The 2007 regulations apply to the conduct of business and transactional work in the UK, affecting credit and financial institutions, auditors and accountants, legal professionals, estate agents, high value dealers and casinos. The regulations require a number of measures relating to due diligence, monitoring, verification, registration, record keeping and employee training. The regulations are superintended by various regulatory bodies and subject to criminal sanctions. For more information see Practice note, Money laundering: offences under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007. Continue reading →

REUTERS |
September 8, 2016

Modern Slavery reporting Q1 2016

The 2016 Global Slavery Index estimates that 45.8 million people are subject to some form of modern slavery in the world today. The Index presents a ranking of 167 countries based on the proportion of the population that is estimated to be in modern slavery. http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/findings/

Those countries with the highest absolute numbers of people in modern slavery are India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan. 58% of those living in slavery do so in those five countries. Practitioners will be alert to the fact that several of these countries provide the low-cost labour that produces consumer goods for markets in Western Europe, Japan, North America and Australia. For more see Note for the board on offences under the Modern Slavery Act 2015  Continue reading →

REUTERS |
September 2, 2016

The limits of Law

The eighth in the series of Thomson Reuters Legal Debates took place on  1 September at the Canary Wharf Auditorium with the motion under debate being whether the judiciary, not just parliament, must address breached election promises. The Rt Hon David Lammy MP and Robert Palmer, Barrister, Monckton Chambers argued for the motion which was opposed by Guardian Journalist, Polly Toynbee and Dan Neidle, a Partner at Clifford Chance who made it very clear from the outset that he was speaking in a personal capacity and not on behalf of Clifford Chance. Chaired by Reuters Editor at Large, Axel Threlfall, the debate was a lively investigation on the limits of law in the context of election promises. Continue reading →

REUTERS |
August 12, 2016

Are breached election promises a matter for the judiciary?

On 1 September 2016, the Thomson Reuters Legal Debate Series will contest the motion that the judiciary, not just parliament, must address breached election promises. This is an interesting motion with a number of sub-questions, primarily the extent to which promises and commitments made during the course of an election campaign can be enforced, and how far those who make the commitments can be held accountable. Continue reading →

REUTERS |
August 9, 2016

The judiciary, not just parliament, must address breached election promises

Join leading minds from the law and politics on 1 September for an intelligent debate on electoral law and accountability in campaigning

Arguing FOR the motion:

Rt Hon David Lammy MP, Member of Parliament for Tottenham
Robert Palmer, Barrister, Monckton Chambers

Arguing AGAINST the motion:

Polly Toynbee, Journalist, Guardian
Dan Neidle, Partner, Clifford Chance

Chaired by:

Axel Threlfall, Editor at Large, Reuters Continue reading →