Training & Knowledge: April 2018

16th Apr 2018Newsletters

Special Police Services and the Tractor Boys

The thorny issue of special police services (‘SPS’) continues to trouble the higher courts. Late last year, in Ipswich Town FC v The Chief Constable of Suffolk Constabulary [2017] EWCA Civ 1484, Ipswich were the latest in a succession of football clubs to challenge the police’s approach, this time with the Football League wading in […]

16th Apr 2018Newsletters

Financial Fair Play: Still All Bark and no Bite?

“If they sign Mbappé, you could rip up Financial Fair Play. Since it was brought in you could argue it’s gone the other way. It’s obscene now.” So said Brendan Rodgers, manager of Scottish football club Celtic, last year after his team were drawn in the same group as Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions […]

16th Apr 2018Newsletters

Australian Ball-Tampering: Mob Justice or a Fair Cop?

On 24 March 2018, the Australian cricketer Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera doctoring a cricket ball with sandpaper to obtain an unfair competitive advantage during his side’s third test match against South Africa.  It quickly emerged that the Australian captain, Steve Smith, knew about the ball-tampering and had condoned it.  Moreover, the Australian vice-captain, […]

13th Apr 2018Newsletters

Consent and Society’s Evolving Values Cannot Outweigh Public Protection

Fifteen years on from R v Brown [1993] UKHL 19 the Court of Appeal again had to grapple with society’s modern values in the context of consent as a defence to assault in R v BM [2018] EWCA Crim 560. The appellant was a tattooist and body piercer who also practised ‘body modification’. The appeal […]

13th Apr 2018Newsletters

The Golden Thread Survives Under the Modern Slavery Act

In R v MK and Persida Gega [2018] EWCA Crim 667, the Court of Appeal has unanimously found that the legal burden of proof rests wholly on the prosecution where a defendant raises a defence under section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (‘the MSA’). In summary, section 45 gives a defence to adults […]