The Ministry of Justice is consulting on proposed changes to the Advocates Graduated Fee Scheme, which pays barristers and solicitor-advocates to conduct legal aid work in the Crown Court.
The Haldane Society has provided a detailed response to the consultation. We oppose the proposed scheme which we believe, despite the Ministry of Justice's claim, represents a significant cut to fees.
Download our response here, or read it below.
Lawyers, law students and legal workers will assemble outside Courts in cities across the U.S at 1pm (ET) today, February 17th, in a strike action called by the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) as part of the #F17 General Strike against the Trump administration. As NLG President Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan states:
“We are facing unprecedented attacks on our most fundamental human rights and are seeing the unfolding of authoritarianism before our eyes. The legal community has no choice but to show up, to defend our communities and to fight back by holding our institutions accountable.”
The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers stands in solidarity with this strike action and support the vital resistance of our comrades in the U.S.
In the space of only four weeks since Donald Trump took office, his regime has issued a series of executive orders that constitute calculated attacks on the rights of muslims, women, people of colour, LBGTQ folk, indigenous communities, the environment and working people.
When the media attempts to hold him to account, Trump dismisses truth as “alternative facts”. When recent legal challenges succeeded in blocking his ‘Muslim ban’, the President dismissed the role of the judiciary via Twitter, saying:
“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!”
Such comments, along with an authoritarian taste for executive orders, reveal the Trump administration's utter disregard for the rule of law and democratic processes. In this context, we believe the legal community has an important role to play in the necessary fightback.
As our comrades in the U.S are demonstrating today, the legal community can strike back against the far right and lend its power to resistance. Solidarity to #LawStrikesBack from across the Atlantic.
On 7 June 2017 we were joined by Rahila Gupta, Jo Magpie, and Margaret Owen, to speak about their experiences of Women's Revolution in Rojava. You can listen below to the talk they gave.
On 24 January 2017 members of the Haldane Society gathered at the Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt in London to protest against the treatment of lawyers by the Egyptian regime. Our European affiliates in the ELDH have prepared a report on the situation for Egyptian lawyers which makes for grim reading.
Lawyers not just in Egypt but around the world face continue to face persecution for doing their jobs. Concern has particularly been expressed recently regarding the treatment of Chinese Lawyers. The Haldane Society has released the following statement:
"On the Day of the Endangered Lawyer 2017, the Haldane Society for Socialist Lawyers expresses solidarity with lawyers in the People’s Republic of China and condemns all state intimidation, violence and detention Chinese legal practitioners are subject to.
In the summer of 2015 over 300 human rights lawyers, legal assistants and activists were detained, interrogated and imprisoned in what became known as the ‘709 Crackdown’, following the first arrest of Human Rights Lawyer Wang Yu on the 9th July. A number of those detained during this wave of repression remain in prison, charged with “subversion” and “inciting subversion”. Some have reported torture. Other lawyers detained during the 709 Crackdown have been released but banned from leaving the country.
As Socialist Lawyers, the Haldane Society stands against all forms of state violence and intimidation. Lawyers in China must be empowered to undertake their professional duties free from executive judicial intervention; free from state harassment, intimidation, arbitrary detention and imprisonment."
The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, alongside our comrades across Europe, condemn the Turkish Minister of Interior’s ban on the Progressive Lawyers Association (CHD) and offer our solidarity to the Turkish lawyers in their fight for human rights and justice under the present Turkish regime.
The Haldane Society echoes the demand of the ELDH and EDL that the Turkish government respects the professional work and role of lawyers, and complies in particular with Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as Art. 16 and 18 of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.
We have reproduced below the press release of our European affiliates ELDH and EDL:
On Friday 11th November the Turkish Minister of Interior, announced a three month ban of all activities of the Progressive Lawyers Association (CHD), an organisation affiliated with the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and the Freedom Lawyers Association (ÖHD). Both are also affiliated to the European Association for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH). The ban is based on art. 11 of the emergency laws.
The Minister is justifying this ban by referring to activities of our Turkish colleagues as a “threat to national security”. The offices of CHD and ÖHD have been sealed.
CHD was founded in 1974 and has 11 branches and more than 3000 members. CHD is presently conducting a campaign against torture in Turkey, an inhumane practice that increased significantly after the attempted coup of July 15 2016 and the intensification of the war against the Kurdish autonomist movement.
This unjustified attack against CHD and ÖHD is a flagrant violation of the freedom of association, the rights of human rights defenders, and the right of arrestees to an effective defence.
We, democratic lawyers and human rights defenders who are participating in the international conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations covenants on human rights, vigorously condemn this new attack of the Erdogan administration against its opponents.
We demand that these attacks against lawyers critical of government policies cease immediately, and that the state of emergency be ended forthwith. This governmental action is a pretext for massive violations of the fundamental rights of the Turkish people and their legal representatives.
The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers invites you to our free public lecture on Whitewashing Justice: Race and the Criminal Justice System.
Speakers will be:
Tickets do not need to be pre-booked, but you can sign up and share the event on Facebook.
We also welcome all members to our AGM which will be held after the lecture.
The AGM will debate the policy of the Society over the next year, and will elect the Officers and Executive Committee.
If you are interested in submitting motions for debate, or in standing for election, please contact secretary@haldane.org by 10 December 2016 at 6.30pm. Alternatively, candidates for election who have not been nominated in advance can be nominated in person at the AGM.
Both events will take place at BPP University Law School, 68-70 Red Lion Street, London, WC1R 4NY.
Tickets are now on sale for the Haldane Society Winter Party. It will be held on the evening of Friday 9 December 2016 at Garden Court Chambers.
Tickets will be available on the door, but early bird tickets are now available at a discounted rate of £10 (£8 student/unwaged/low waged).
Your ticket price includes unlimited food, drink, and comradeship all evening.
Along with all food and drink being included in the ticket price, we can now confirm that we will be joined by renowned Marxist Magician Ian Saville.
FOR more than 35 years, Ian Saville has been working his socialist magic and Marxist ventriloquism at clubs, concerts, fundraisers and political benefits.
Combining corny but annoyingly mysterious “How does he do that?” tricks with ventriloquism involving Karl Marx, Bertholt Brecht and William Morris, his act is always thought-provoking and a topical celebration of socialist ideas.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women recently sought submissions from bodies across the globe dealing with the need for a separate legally binding treaty on violence against women with its separate monitoring body.
The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and the Haldane Feminist Lawyers made detailed submissions which should assist the Special Rapporteur in determining how to proceed.
The first lecture of our series will have speakers Jacob Bindman (Garden Court Chambers), Catherine Rose (Haldane Society Legal Observers), and Kevin Blowe (Netpol).
Our series' second lecture will feature speakers Joanne Cecil (Garden Court Chambers) and Gloria Morrison (JENGbA).
On 25 April 2016 the Haldane Society were joined by Jane Fae, Julian Norman, and Stephen Whittle to discuss the issue of conditional consent.
