CPACD

The fire: On 14th June 2017 a fire ignited in 24-storey Grenfell Tower, Kensington, London.   Emergency services received the first report (999 call) of the fire at 00:54 BST.  The call related to a fire having broken out in Flat 16.   On receipt of the 999 call, fire engines were sent to the scene and the first arrived at 00:59 hrs.  During the earlier stage of the fire service response, the Incident Commander was Mr Michael Dowden. The fire quickly spread through the building - see the images at BBC News 18 June 2018 .   72 people died and many more were injured. Ultimately, more than 250 London Fire Brigade firefighters and 70 fire engines were involved from stations all across London in efforts to control the fire.   Over 100 London Ambulance Service crews on at least 20 ambulances attended, joined by the specialist Hazardous Area Response Team, the Metropolitan Police Service and London's Air Ambulance. Inquiry: An inquiry was set up by the P...

Royal Assent was given on 26th June and the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 is now on the statute book - Royal Assent is explained by Parliament HERE . It is an Act to repeal the European Communities Act 1972 and make other provision in connection with the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU.  Its progress through Parliament commenced on 13 July 2017 and is recorded HERE .  The Bill, as first introduced, is HERE .  The Act contains 25 sections and 9 Schedules.  This post is an overview of the Act.  Further articles and blogposts are inevitable and I will add links at the end of this post as and when they become available. The Act defines Exit Day; provides for legal continuity when Brexit takes place; gives Ministers enormous law-making powers to deal with Withdrawal from the EU; makes important provision relating to devolution; provides for Parliament to approve the negotiated withdrawal agreement and the framework for the future relationship....

"The abiding impression of this period in Northern Ireland must be of an extremely dark and violent time in which a lawyer could so callously and tragically be murdered as a result of discharging his professional legal duties" - report by Sir Desmond de Silva QC December 2012. On 26th and 27th June, the Supreme Court hears  Geraldine Finucane's application for Judicial Review .   The judgment under appeal is HERE . Here is a story of undoubted gross misconduct, abuse of power and involvement by the State in the murder of its own citizens and nobody has been held accountable for it.  The State, having held out the promise of a public inquiry, decided to hold a paper based review.  The Executive subverted the rule of law and it is precisely in this type of case that the court - as "guardians of the rule of law" - must not look the other way.  Those were points made in opening the appeal on 26th June by counsel for Mrs Finucane. The following is the Supre...

Two years after the EU Referendum an interesting constitutional question lingers - How did the UK decide to leave the EU?  Article 50.1 TEU   stipulates that - "Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements."  Then Art 50.2 - A Member State which decides to withdraw shall notify the European Council of its intention.  Art 50 defines the leaving process in EU law and the structure is clear enough and logical - decision followed by notification of the decision.  Also, as far as the EU is concerned, how a Member State decides to leave is a matter for the "constitutional requirements" of that State. It is not surprising that this has led to a search for the UK's constitutional requirements for such a major far-reaching decision?  UK constitutional law does not give a crystal clear answer but, given that sovereignty rests in law with the Queen in Parliament, one might have expected that Parliament,...