After having read the first chapter of ‘McNae’s’ and watching our first Law lecture, I would have to admit certain passages caught my attention. Now don’t get me wrong, but reading law in a book is never going to be thrilling. However, I found that once given examples of these codes, it allows you to see what they actually lead to. Or prevent, given the circumstances. The laws relating to Human Rights in particular caught my eye. I had never before connected corruption and political violence in Third World countries to the lack of a Free Press. Now that it’s been pointed out, I can see the impact that Investigative Journalists can have on society by exposing these wrongdoings. It makes one wonder what would be dug up should a Free Press ever be established in, say North Korea. It certainly helps to explain how these dictatorships manage to stay in power so easily. As opposed to the petty fraud of our own ‘Higher-ups’ who can barely sneeze without appearing on the cover of ‘The Sun‘. But then you can’t compare a madman in control of a country on the brink, to a bit of on-the-side moat cleaning, or a little free porn.
I was also quite interested in the court system of the UK, learning about the differences between the Civil and Criminal courts. I wasn’t aware of the court-specific jargon used in each: Found guilty against being ‘held liable’; Only using the term ‘sentence’ in criminal courts etc. I had also never thought much about appeals, I had assumed that if a defendant appealed a decision, the case would be repeated with a new jury and judge. This seemed logical to me as it helps to eliminate the chances of any kind of accidental ruling (looking back I can see how that sounds stupid, but in fairness I’ve not had much experience in these matters till now). In a sense the appeals moving up a court, does introduce a new ‘audience’ and as it moves up, the standard of conduct would be expected to rise in tangent. Therefore, if you were innocent and had been convicted, new evidence would be much more likely to be found or re-examined. It could definitely prove to be interesting to have the number 2 Crown Court in the country here in Winchester. Never know, we could get lucky.
I myself could be getting some first-hand experience of the UK’s court system as I’m currently engaged in a GBH case against a bouncer, so I’ll certainly be taking notes if it comes to that.
I welcome any and all criticism on this post, as with a constitutional code as ever-changing and complicated (to me) as ours, I’m certain I’ll have misunderstood something along the line.
Thanks for bearing with me.
I was also quite interested in the court system of the UK, learning about the differences between the Civil and Criminal courts. I wasn’t aware of the court-specific jargon used in each: Found guilty against being ‘held liable’; Only using the term ‘sentence’ in criminal courts etc. I had also never thought much about appeals, I had assumed that if a defendant appealed a decision, the case would be repeated with a new jury and judge. This seemed logical to me as it helps to eliminate the chances of any kind of accidental ruling (looking back I can see how that sounds stupid, but in fairness I’ve not had much experience in these matters till now). In a sense the appeals moving up a court, does introduce a new ‘audience’ and as it moves up, the standard of conduct would be expected to rise in tangent. Therefore, if you were innocent and had been convicted, new evidence would be much more likely to be found or re-examined. It could definitely prove to be interesting to have the number 2 Crown Court in the country here in Winchester. Never know, we could get lucky.
I myself could be getting some first-hand experience of the UK’s court system as I’m currently engaged in a GBH case against a bouncer, so I’ll certainly be taking notes if it comes to that.
I welcome any and all criticism on this post, as with a constitutional code as ever-changing and complicated (to me) as ours, I’m certain I’ll have misunderstood something along the line.
Thanks for bearing with me.
Wow - keep us posted about the GBH
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