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Henry Brooke

Musings, Memories and Miscellanea

  • Home Page
  • ACCESS TO JUSTICE
    • Hackney Law Centre: (1) Housing cases
    • The Manchester bomb: Lawyers to the rescue
    • My 2007 lecture on Pro Bono Legal Services
    • Possession hearings & the closure of Lambeth County Court
    • The North Kensington Law Centre and Grenfell Tower
    • My talk at the Hackney Law Centre
  • BACH COMMISSION
    • The Bach Report: (1) Its message
      • The Bach Report: (2) My article for the Gazette
      • The Bach Report: (2A) Two speeches at the launch of the report
      • The Bach Report: (3) The use of technology
      • The Bach Report: (4) Legal aid lawyers & the effect of LASPO
      • The Bach Report: (5) Family Law
      • The Bach Report: (6) The effect of the cuts on Legal Aid Providers
      • The Bach Report: (7) Criminal Justice
      • The Bach Report (8) Housing Law
      • The Bach report: (9) Cost implications and potential savings
      • The Bach Report: (10) Welfare benefits
      • The Bach Report: (11) Immigration law
      • The Bach Report: (12) The legal aid gateway telephone service
      • The Bach Report: (13) Exceptional case funding
      • The Bach Report: (14) Legal representation at inquests
      • The Bach Report: (15) The rights of children to access to justice
      • The Bach Report: (16) Judicial Review
      • The Bach Report: (17) Law centres and the law centres network
      • The Bach Report: (18) Advice services
      • The Bach Report: (19) Public legal education
    • The new Access to Justice Commission: Update 8 (The Society of Labour Lawyers)
      • The new Access to Justice Commission: Update 7 (The Bar Council)
      • The new Access to Justice Commission: Update 6 (The Law Society)
      • The new Access to Justice Commission: Update 5 (Roger Smith)
      • The new Access to Justice Commission: Update 4 (Professor Susskind)
      • The new Access to Justice Commission: Update 3 [revised] (Lord Low & Steve Hynes’ evidence)
      • The new Access to Justice Commission: Update 2
      • The new Access to Justice Commission: Update 1
      • The Bach Commission: Stories of Injustice (Volume 1)
      • The Bach Commission: Stories of Injustice (Volume 2)
  • DIVERSITY
    • Cross-cultural communication at the Bar: then and now
    • Improving race relations at the Bar: What we achieved 25 years ago
    • Some thoughts about the Lammy Report
    • David Lammy’s Review of Criminal Justice: My Talk on Sentencing in 1993
    • Her Honour Judge Anuja Ravindra Dhir
    • A Visit to Canada: Canadian Judicial Education in 1993
    • The 1993 Kapila Lecture
    • Two fine lawyers: (2) Courtenay Griffiths QC
    • Gender Equality and the Judiciary: A Commonwealth Perspective
      • A need for greater empathy
      • A need for greater empathy (2)
  • FALSE ACCUSATIONS
    • Stories of Injustice (19)
    • Some comments on my last blog (Stories of Injustice No 19)
    • Further comments on Stories of Injustice No 19
    • Stories of Injustice (20)
  • HUMAN RIGHTS
    • The travel ban litigation: Peculiar happenings in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
      • President Trump and the Courts: the advantages of transparency
  • IT AND THE LAW
    • Collection of old papers on IT and the Law
    • IT and the Courts: Treasury inertia for 15 years
    • Judge John Tanzer retires: his massive contribution to Judicial I.T.
    • The Online Court Hackathon
    • The Digital Court System – the future has arrived
    • The new AdviceLocal postcode tool
  • JUDGMENTS
    • Judgments: the best opening lines – and a few more
    • Lord Denning’s unique prose style: 34 more examples
    • Miscellany of the Best Opening Lines etc – Part 2
    • Opening Lines, Part III: Richard III and a Leicester car park
    • Opening lines & memorable passages in judgments – Part IV
    • Memorable judgments (5): When is a decision not a decision?
    • Judgments Part VI: Opening lines & memorable passages
  • LASPO REVIEW
    • The LASPO Review: (1) My recent talk about the Bach Commission’s report on the Right to Justice
    • The LASPO Review: (2) My address to the Bar Conference
  • LAW REFORM
    • The Law Commission and the protection of official data
      • The origins of the statutory discount rate for lump sum personal injury awards
      • What is the meaning of the discount rate and why does it matter?
      • The discount rate: some defects in the Ministry’s Consultation Paper
  • LEGAL AID
    • Rights and the Legal Aid calamity – A brand new website
  • LEGAL HISTORY
    • The Assize Judges in a Garrison Town
    • Sitting Long Hours
    • The Gold Chain of the Lord Chief Justice
    • Mourning Bands and Weepers
    • The junior barrister’s gown
    • Mr Justice Darling: “an impudent little man in horsehair”
    • The last Canadian case in the Privy Council (1)
      • The last Canadian case in the Privy Council (2)
  • LEGAL MATTERS
    • Infographic: Understanding Lasting Powers of Attorney
    • All’s well that ends well – three years late
    • The miserable state of criminal justice
    • The appointment of the new Lord Chief Justice
      • Lord Burnett’s speech to the Criminal Cases Review Commission
    • Failures in prosecution disclosure
  • LIFE AND DEATH
    • Four reflections on the Charlie Gard case
    • My Talk about the Conjoined Twins case
    • The Conjoined Twins Case
  • MEDIATION
    • Learning to be a mediator: what I wrote in 2007
      • Mediation and Inheritance Disputes
      • The Tutu Foundation UK
      • The cost of the NHSLA’s refusals to mediate
      • The role of Mediation in Planning and Environmental Disputes
  • MEMORIES
    • My Welsh Grandfather
    • National Service 60 years ago: (1) Egypt and Libya
      • National Service 60 years ago: (2) Cyprus
    • Lord Denning and I: (1) The Cumberland Lodge weekends
      • Lord Denning and I (2): 1962-1972
      • Lord Denning and I: (3) The Final Years
    • Law and Practice in the 1960s
      • Law and Practice in the 1960s: (1) Chambers at 2 Crown Office Row
      • Law and practice in the 1960s: (2) Public law
      • Law and practice in the 1960s: (3) Family Law (1964-1977)
      • Law and Practice in the 1960s: (4) Crime (including driving offences)
    • Sir Nicholas Wall
    • Another memory of Lord Denning in his old age
  • MISCELLANEA
    • Judges and vicarious trauma
    • A need for greater empathy (2)
  • MUSINGS
    • Some musings about my blogs – 18 months on
    • Brexit musings: (1) The cost of withdrawal
    • A need for greater empathy
  • NON-LEGAL MATTERS
    • Our Golden Wedding
    • The Tryweryn Affair – or how Liverpool “stole” Welsh water
      • Cecil Parkinson and Dove Cottage
      • Peter Rawlinson’s memoirs (2): Mr Macmillan, my father and Stephen Ward
      • Shakespeare in Middle Temple Hall
        • 1. Shakespeare and the law
        • 2. Shakespeare and justice
        • 3. Shakespeare and civil rights
        • 4. Shakespeare and legal language
  • PIPs
    • Stories of Injustice (9): LASPO and the cuts
    • De Profundis: A tale of misery from the front line
    • Personal Independence Payments (PIPs): Help from Law for Life & Citizens Advice
    • More about PIPs: The pipinfo website
    • PIPs and ESAs: Another Disgraceful Story
    • Mandatory reconsiderations and the rule of law
      • Mandatory reconsiderations: (2) Muddled language
      • 19 Comments on my blogs on Mandatory Reconsiderations
    • PIPs again: An existence, not a life at the age of 49
    • PIPs: A blind woman’s experience
    • PIPs: Injustice averted – a real success story
    • Poor decision-making, Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) and PIP appeals
    • PIPs: My evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee
  • CONTACT

Month: December 2015

Charles Dickens and the Law: (3) Oliver Twist and the New Poor Law

On December 30, 2015December 31, 2015 By Henry BrookeIn MISCELLANEA3 Comments

 

Oliver Twist was Dickens’s second novel. Continue reading “Charles Dickens and the Law: (3) Oliver Twist and the New Poor Law” →

Charles Dickens and the Law: (2) David Copperfield and Doctors’ Commons

On December 20, 2015December 21, 2015 By Henry BrookeIn MISCELLANEA1 Comment

the Prerogative Wills Office

In Chapter 23 of David Copperfield Charles Dickens describes how David’s great-aunt Betsey Trotwood paid £1,000 for him to be articled to Messrs Spenlow and Jorkins, Continue reading “Charles Dickens and the Law: (2) David Copperfield and Doctors’ Commons” →

Charles Dickens and the law: (1) Little Dorrit and the use of prison in debt recovery

On December 18, 2015December 19, 2015 By Henry BrookeIn MISCELLANEA4 Comments

One of the pleasures of retirement is the opportunity to read long books without the risk that one will have forgotten the beginning long before reaching the end. Continue reading “Charles Dickens and the law: (1) Little Dorrit and the use of prison in debt recovery” →

The role of Mediation in Planning and Environmental Disputes

On December 16, 2015December 16, 2015 By Henry BrookeIn MISCELLANEALeave a comment

I am conscious that I have not yet published anything on this site about mediation or about town and country planning. Continue reading “The role of Mediation in Planning and Environmental Disputes” →

A Visit to Canada: Canadian Judicial Education in 1993

On December 14, 2015December 14, 2015 By Henry BrookeIn DIVERSITY3 Comments

In view of the interest being shown in Canada in some of my blogs, Continue reading “A Visit to Canada: Canadian Judicial Education in 1993” →

Lord Denning and I: (1) The Cumberland Lodge weekends

On December 11, 2015December 12, 2015 By Henry BrookeIn MEMORIES9 Comments

 

I ended my blog on Reading for the Bar in the early 1960s like this: Continue reading “Lord Denning and I: (1) The Cumberland Lodge weekends” →

Place Money and the Circuits

On December 7, 2015December 7, 2015 By Henry BrookeIn MEMORIES1 Comment

 

I have been asked by Andrew Keogh (aka CrimeLineLaw) to explain what I meant in yesterday’s blog Continue reading “Place Money and the Circuits” →

Law and Practice in the 1960s: (4) Crime (including driving offences)

On December 6, 2015 By Henry BrookeIn MEMORIES6 Comments

 

When I started to practise at the Bar in 1964, formal advocacy training was unheard of. Continue reading “Law and Practice in the 1960s: (4) Crime (including driving offences)” →

The Law Commission’s Family Homes and Domestic Violence Bill in 1995

On December 4, 2015December 4, 2015 By Henry BrookeIn LEGAL MATTERSLeave a comment

 

This is my introductory address to a Special Public Bills Committee of the House of Lords – a so-called Jellicoe Committee. Continue reading “The Law Commission’s Family Homes and Domestic Violence Bill in 1995” →

Law and practice in the 1960s: (3) Family Law (1964-1977)

On December 4, 2015December 4, 2015 By Henry BrookeIn LEGAL MATTERS1 Comment

 

When I started to practise at the Bar in 1964, there was no such thing as family law. Continue reading “Law and practice in the 1960s: (3) Family Law (1964-1977)” →

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