Jean-Yves Gilg

Editor, Solicitors Journal

Lady in red

I am sitting in Northampton Square, Islington at lunch time eating a sandwich of cotton wool bread and stale chicken. It is a quiet area of grass dotted with a few flowerbeds and surrounded by wrought iron railings. In the middle is something like a bandstand and next to it a woman in a red hooded coat with a patchwork bag is talking to a blonde woman in a grey coat. The woman in red is smoking a cigarette on which she draws occasionally. The scene has the hall marks of a John Le CarrÃ© novel. Any moment I expect the woman in red to sit down beside me and give me a coded message: â€œThe daffodils are blooming in St Petersburg.â€ But she did not â€“ she just stubbed out her cigarette and moved off.

Straw delays action on private war crimes prosecutions

Jack Straw, the justice secretary, has decided to consult the justice select committee of the House of Commons before taking action to limit the right of private individuals to launch war crimes prosecutions.

Government takes direct control of legal aid as Regan resigns

The government has announced its intention to take direct control of legal aid by turning the Legal Services Commission into an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice.

Council golf course is a 'town green', Supreme Court decides

A council golf course near the Tees estuary in Redcar must be registered as a 'town green' under the Commons Act 2006, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Catholic agency in ultimate appeal over same-sex parenting

Catholic Care, the organisation providing adoption services to the catholic community, has started a last-ditch attempt to stop the application of regulations that would prevent it from excluding same-sex couples from its services.

QC faces Â£560,000 demand from wife he divorced 25 years ago

David Vaughan QC, one of the leading silks at Brick Court and described by Chambers as a â€œdoyen of competition lawâ€, faces a claim for Â£560,000 from his first wife, following their divorce 25 years ago. The case will be heard by the Court of Appeal later this week.

Assisted-dying guidelines clamp down on medically-aided suicide

Doctors and healthcare professionals could face a higher risk of prosecution if they help patients take their own lives according to new guidelines published by the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC last week.

Judges "must demonstrate commitment to public service"

People applying for judicial posts should show their commitment to public service by answering questions about voluntary work, Baroness Neuberger, chair of the Lord Chancellor's advisory panel on judicial diversity, has said.

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Jean-Yves Gilg

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