Following a meeting of the Four Bars (England and Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland) in Belfast recently and in advance of the forthcoming Four Jurisdictions Conference in Belfast in June, the leadership of the Four Bars have issued the following joint statement on the proposed removal of juries for rape and other serious sexual offence trials in Scotland.
ON THE afternoon of 23 April, just as the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill met with a markedly poorer reception in Holyrood than the government hoped, I was at the University of Glasgow, participating in an international workshop on independent legal representation (ILR) and advice for complainers in serious sexual offence trials. In the Emma Ritch Law Clinic at the University, there exists a ground-breaking resource already providing complainers with advice on legal matters thrust upon them by the justice system, albeit not yet in relation to the trials themselves. Eamon Keane, principal solicitor at the clinic, and Jacqui Kingham, professor of Law and Social Change at the University, brought together at the workshop academics from around the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere to explain and explore the existing schemes in different jurisdictions around the globe.
It was with deep sadness that the Faculty of Advocates learnt this week of the untimely passing of Jane Rattray.