Discussion of the Leveson Review Proposals at The City Law School

On Tuesday 7 October, the Centre for Justice Reform and the Legal Practice Hub at City St George’s, University of London, hosted a successful panel discussion looking at the implications of the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, which was led by Sir Brian Leveson.

The initial report makes wide-ranging — and sometimes controversial — proposals for reform of the Criminal Justice System, and there was a full house at The City Law School’s moot room, eager to look at some of these proposals in depth.

Professor Richard Ashcroft, Executive Dean of The City Law School, opened the event, and Dr Cassandra Wiener, Co-Director of the Centre for Justice Reform, as Chair introduced the panel.

Professor Peter Hungerford-Welch, of the Legal Practice Hub, set the tone for the evening by providing a helpful overview of the reforms, distinguishing those which he thought were controversial and those that were uncontroversial - he panel did not always agree with these distinctions, which made for an interesting debate.

Dr Hannah Quirk, Reader in Criminal Law, King’s College London, set the Review into its sociolegal context, explaining the limitations of Sir Brian Leveson’s original brief and tracking the resultant shortcomings.

His Honour Judge Peter Rook KC shared his thoughts on the importance of juries, in particular in relation to the serious sexual offences trials, explaining why he thought these trials should not be treated differently.

Dr Wiener then led an interesting discussion from the floor. Her Honour Judge Angela Rafferty KC conducted some ad hoc empirical research, presenting the students in the room with a crime scenario and asking them if they would elect to be tried by a judge or a jury.  

Helen Churcher, Senior Research and Policy Officer for The Howard League for Penal Reform, challenged the panel to consider some of the implications of the overuse of remands in custody prior to trial.

J-P MacNamara, Senior Lecturer, The City Law School, shared some thoughts about an event at Middle Temple the previous evening, where Sir Brian Leveson had spoken about his proposals. Some of the comments that Sir Brian had made sparked further lively discussion among the panel and audience.