Law According To A King

Through seeking equality, the law seems to aspire to do the impossible: erase differences. Though progressive legislation and regulations in Europe often single out disabled persons for favourable treatment to overcome systemic and historical disadvantages, the core approach of the law remains the same. This is undoubtedly a more challenging task when seeking to ensure all disabled people live on an equal footing, and the law has often given up when it seems too hard, particularly considering how the disabled community are uniquely diverse in their characteristic that qualifies them for protected status; for the LGB+ community, they are protected by virtue of their sexual orientation, for ethnic and racial minorities, it may be their culture or their skin colour, and for women, men, and transgender individuals, they are protected because of their sex. Disabilities are far more diverse than even culture: some estimates have there being 6,000 distinct cultures in the world, whereas there...

"I'm an A-level student studying English Literature, History, and Government and Politics, currently serving as Deputy Head Girl of Herschel Grammar School, and a Co-Founder of the Herschel Law Society. I hope to study Law at university and pursue a career in the legal industry. I love to read - currently reading "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky"." The question raised about felon disenfranchisement also inevitably raises the question as to whether the prison system should be more about rehabilitation, or punishment; something which must also be considered when contemplating this predicament. Convicted persons, during the time that they are detained in a penal institution, are legally incapable of voting at any parliamentary or local government election . One presumes this to be completely preposterous because prisoners, even those who serve the average life sentence, will eventually be released into society, and will be expected to become productive citizen...

"17-year-old currently studying law, RE and History at A Levels." 1. Anti-Asian hate crimes during COVID-19. While the pandemic has wreaked havoc on people's health around the world, it has also resulted in an increase in hate crimes targeting a specific racial group. East Asians have recently been subjected to more heinous abuse than ever before and with COVID-19's origins in China, many uneducated individuals have taken it upon themselves to racially attack anyone Asian, believing that just because they are of Asian descent they need to be referred to as some disease. According to data from the UK police, hate crimes against East and Southeast Asians increased by 300 percent in the first quarter of 2020, compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019. From name calling, to physical abuse, there has been a wide range of attacks and they are damaging the safety of Asians in society. Jonathon Mok, 23 was just simply walking along Oxford Street when he heard the chants of...

Mill's 'harm principle' forms the basis of many of our legal principles, particularly when viewed from the perspective of a liberal critic. This harm principle, which states that the law should only regulate behaviour to prevent harm to others, has a particularly strong case when considering anti-discrimination law, which exists primarily to prevent people from suffering the effects of both direct and indirect discrimination - direct being when a rule singles a group out for unfavourable treatment (think segregation or denying service to gay customers), and indirect being when an apparently neutral rule has a disproportionate impact on a minority group (for example, literacy qualifications for voting may disproportionately harm immigrants or minorities from low-education backgrounds). The harm principle underpins much of anti-discrimination law, but when it comes to certain areas, the law seemingly abandons it and takes a different approach, and these shall be examined in t...

The debate as to how far the office of the Prime Minister has evolved to become more like that of a President is a hot one in political and constitutional theory, but it does have some practical ramifications for the way we think about our leaders. This post shall take a look at the arguments for and against the 'presidentialisation' of the prime minister, and examine the consequences for either side.  Firstly, it is widely accepted that the executive office of the PM has grown in recent decades. In 1970, the cabinet office had just 600 staff, but under Tony Blair, that number grew to over 2,500. As a comparison, the executive office of the President has around 4,000 - though most scholars agree this growth can be attributed to the expansion of the administrative state since the end of WWII. Better, Dowding argues, to look at the role of the executive office. Dowding says the role of staffers in the PM's office is largely based around coordination across government, and the...

 'Cancel culture', defined as a form of ostracism in which someone is forced out of social or professional circles - either online, in real life, or both - as the result of doing something that is considered objectionable or offensive, is becoming more and more relevant, particularly in the age of Trump, #MeToo, and Black Lives Matter. It is derided by those on all sides of the political spectrum as stifling discourse and freedom of speech, while its proponents argue that 'cancelling' someone is merely the consequence of their wrongful behaviour. This poses an important legal question, particularly when the courts routinely protect freedom of speech, arguing that "freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having." But, similarly, the courts have also imposed constraints on the freedom of speech - indeed, it has long been accepted one cannot yell 'fire' in a crowded theatre and expect to face no consequences if there was no fire. This blog post s...