Lawyers

bullying church of england priest suicide

The immoral, scandalous and disgraceful nature of CofE bullying

July 22, 2021
Martin Sewell
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'Immoral, scandalous or disgraceful' is a phrase from the Statutes of Christ Church, Oxford: it describes behaviour warranting disciplinary action being undertaken within that institution, but it is also an entirely appropriate description of the way in which the Church…

“Shabby and shambolic” – the CofE still conspires against truth and justice in historic sexual abuse

August 2, 2019
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Anyone wishing the Church of England well might have hoped that the end of the IICSA hearing last month represented the nadir of its unhappy handling of victims complaints. Despite…

Legal Aid: why is the Government riding roughshod over the rights of the poor?

July 12, 2019
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It is a well established part of the life of General Synod that the clergy and laity can submit motions for debate to the Business Committee. Synod time is both…

Legal Aid is in crisis: can the Church of England help ensure justice?

December 18, 2018
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The Brexit drama is sucking the oxygen of publicity away from many other newsworthy stories, and one of the more regrettable casualties is the parlous state of our Legal Aid…

Ethan Couch and ‘affluenza’: where is God in the absence of visible justice?

July 2, 2018
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‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers’ (Henry VI, Pt II, IVii). Sure, I know. Some pernickety pedant with a literary bent is going to tell me…

Dominic Grieve isn’t a traitor; he’s a lawyer with a blind spot

June 19, 2018
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'Unhinged' is how Dominic Grieve described his Brexit-supporting colleagues on the Conservative benches in the House of Commons. Or was it just some of his colleagues? Perhaps it was just…

In Holy Week we should hold our Archbishops’ feet to the fire

March 26, 2018
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Many years ago during the course of a philosophical discussion, an old writer friend of mine offered me one of the most simple yet incisive observations on the human condition.…

The George Bell saga evidences a CofE legal culture which is not merely incompetent, but predisposed toward deception and injustice

January 25, 2018
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How many times must I forgive my errant brother? St Matthew tells us it is seventy times seven, which, by my reckoning, suggests that Archbishop Justin has at least another…

Assisted dying? Suicide courts, not doctors, will judge the merits of your death

August 10, 2015
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This iniquitous Bill refuses to die. It keeps re-emerging like a Godzilla sequel; forever coming back like the proverbial bad penny – unwanted, unpleasant, unfortunate. We are told that…