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The European Parliament’s AI Regulation: Should We Call It Progress?
Full text linkThe European Union (EU) has been leading the world with its influential digital regulation. However, the EU’s legislative process is sufficiently complex and careful that some national legislation clearly influenced by the EU’s AI Regulation is already in place in other countries, before the law has even been finalized in the EU. Meanwhile, other states and regions are just beginning to develop AI policy. For both the EU and such others, we here describe the outcomes of the first round of legislative action by one of the EU’s two legislative bodies, the European Parliament, in terms of modifying the Artificial Intelligence Act. The Parliament has introduced a number of changes we consider to be enormously important, some in a very good way, and some in a very bad way. At stake is whether the AI Act really brings the power and strength of product law to continuously scale improved practice on products in the EU with intelligent components, or whether the law becomes window-dressing aimed only at attacking a few elite actors post hoc. We describe here the EU process, the changes and our recommendations.
Keywords: AI Act; digital governance; AI regulation; parliamentary processes; European Union; transnational regulation
Tikanga and the Law: A Model of Recognition
Full text linkThis paper is based on the transcript from a presentation given at the New Zealand Asian Lawyers Wānanga on Tikanga and the Law given on 3 May 2023. This paper offers one of many explanations of tikanga and is an entry level introduction only to a complex kaupapa. This paper traverses briefly a proposed three-part model of recognition of tikanga. The first part of the model is a methodology of engagement. The second part is the notion of kaitiaki as a controlling principle. The third part is tikanga-enabling processes. The last two steps of the methodology are covered briefly due to time restraints.
Keywords: tikanga; normative system; recognition; methodology of engagement; tikanga-enabling processes; common law
Jury Reform and Live Deliberation Research
Full text linkResearchers face perennial difficulties in studying live jury deliberation. As a result, the academic community struggles to reach a consensus on key matters of legal reform concerning jury trials. The hurdles faced by empirical jury researchers are often legal or institutional. This note argues that the legal and institutional barriers preventing live deliberation research should be removed and discusses two forms that live deliberation research could take.
Keywords: jury research; jury trial; criminal procedure; live deliberation research; rape myths
Reviewing the Arbitration Act 1996: A Difficult Exercise?
Full text linkThe (English) Arbitration Act 1996 is currently under review by the Law Commission as it turns 27 this year. This article analyses its Consultation Paper released in September 2022, and which contains preliminary recommendations for an update of the Arbitration Act. This analysis reveals that some issues considered by the Law Commission are not new since they had already been identified by the Departmental Advisory Committee on Arbitration Law prior to the adoption of the Arbitration Act 1996. In fact, some of these concerns were unable to be settled back in the 1990s, and still are to some extent 27 years later. For other issues, however, the Law Commission attempts to draw on recent developments in arbitral practice and contemporary challenges (such as climate change and technological advances) though at times failing to integrate them in an updated Act.
Keywords: English arbitration; international arbitration; Arbitration Act 1996; Law Commission’s Review of Arbitration Act
A British Bundesrat? The Brown Commission and the Future of the House of Lords
Full text linkReform of the House of Lords has occupied the minds of politicians, civil servants and academics for over a century. In late 2022, the Labour Party published a proposal for the replacement of the Lords with a new, democratically elected, Assembly of the Nations and Regions. This proposed Assembly resembles, at least superficially, the German Bundesrat. The author reviews the history of Lords reform, examines Labour’s proposals, compares the envisioned Assembly with the Bundesrat and concludes that the former will be found wanting.
Keywords: United Kingdom; Germany; constitutional law; Parliament; House of Lords; Bundesrat; constitutional reform
Court Closures: Experiences from Wales
Full text linkEngland and Wales have seen court modernization programmes since 2010, which have led to nearly half of all courts closing. There has been a disproportionate impact on Wales, which has seen higher rates of court closures in comparison to England. This article explores the implications of these court closures by focusing on experiences in south Wales. The article draws on interviews with solicitors and barristers working in south Wales to further understand how court closures are impacting the communities that the courts serve and the people that use the courts. The court closures are shown to challenge access to justice, and there emerges a need for more study on the effects of court closures in Wales, and across the jurisdiction.
Keywords: courts; court closures; Wales; austerity; lawyer
Some Failings of Consumer ADR Policy
Full text linkThe promotion of consumer alternative dispute resolution (ADR) has been a consistent policy of the UK Government and appears to be well used. This article addresses two issues. The first is institutional arrangements for consumer ADR policy. The second is the availability of information about the performance of consumer ADR schemes. The argument is that the current institutional arrangements are flawed and that although there is some useful information publicly available to assess the performance of consumer ADR as a whole, it is not easily accessible and has not been used very much. Until these matters are addressed, it is not possible to evaluate the performance of consumer ADR properly and to develop appropriate policies.
Keywords: consumer; alternative dispute resolution; Ombudsman; information; complaints
Resolving the Costs of the Action by Mediation not Litigation
Full text linkThis article considers the role of mediation in resolution of the quantum of costs in civil proceedings in the courts of England and Wales as an alternative to detailed assessment by a judge under the Civil Procedure Rules 1998. The benefits of mediation are reviewed by carrying out a comparison with the court process, emphasizing the speed, costs savings, informality and privacy which resolution other than going to court can deliver. The article also comments upon whether making mediation in costs mandatory would assist parties who pay and receive costs, and whether this is likely to happen in the foreseeable future.
Keywords: civil procedure; legal costs; detailed assessment; alternative dispute resolution; costs mediation