Marcel Berlins



Profile:
Full name: Marcel Berlins

Area of interest: The Law

Journals: The Guardian

Email: [mailto:MBerlins@aol.com mberlins@aol.com]

Website: Guardian.co / Marcel Berlins

Blog: Comment is free...

Agent:

Networks:



Biography:
Education: Trained as a lawyer

Career: Created and edited The Law Magazine; The Times: legal correspondent and leader writer; The Guardian: legal writer and columnist, 1988-current Current position/role: Legal writer and columnist


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles:

Other activities: Teaches media law at City University, London

Viewpoints/Insight: Puzzling,very puzzling... Fortune City, (Reproduced from the Radio Times)

TV/Radio:
 * For London Weekend Television he created the first television drama-documentary to feature real lawyers and judges doing their jobs
 * Presented BBC Radio 4's Law in Action programme, 1988/2004

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours:

Other: Is a French citizen by birth and voted in the 2007 French presidential election



Books & Debate:

 * Caught in the act: children, society and the law OCLC 1255195, with Geoffrey Wansell, 1974
 * Ramesh Maharaj, barrister behind bars OCLC 12695440, 1979
 * Living together OCLC 16554368, with Clare Dyer, 1982
 * You and the law OCLC 12505377, with the Consumers Association, 1985
 * The Law and you OCLC 59145899, 1987
 * The law machine OCLC 60106322, with Clare Dyer, 1994

Latest work:

Speaking/Appearances: Bath Literature Festival 2008: Doreen Lawrence & Kester Aspden with Marcel Berlins - Two authors discuss race and justice, past and present with Marcel Berlins, 1st March 2008

Current debate: 

The Guardian: 'Writ large'
Column remit: The Law and Society: legal system, criminal justice, judiciary, constitution

Section: Home pages

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:marcel.berlins@guardian.co.uk marcel.berlins@guardian.co.uk]

Website: Guardian.co / Writ large

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Monday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length: 500 words



Articles:

 * can only get better for Straw's libel reform plans'' - Government proposals to overhaul libel system show problems of allowing freedom of expression while protecting individuals - 29th March 2010
 * age of criminal responsibility in the spotlight'' - Bulger killer's recall to jail may not provide best platform for exploring how society should treat young offenders - 15th March 2010
 * genocide resolution is an ignorant stunt'' - Definitions of genocide are difficult but one thing is clear: the US Congress has no business ruling on the Armenian claim - 8th March 2010
 * the judges' bench is still a white male zone'' - The judiciary remains short of women and ethnic minority members but prejudice is not to blame – the problem is in finding enough good candidates - 1st March 2010
 * are fair, but newspapers are not'' - Media coverage of report on juries ignored the document's main point and mangled its other findings - 22nd February 2010
 * case for the rule of law'' - Why a new book about Britain's greatest constitutional riddle should be compulsory reading for MPs – and everyone else - 15th February 2010
 * Terry gagging order defeat does not mean the end of superinjunctions'' - Celebrities who try to stop newspapers revealing their affairs still have a chance of getting injunctions on privacy grounds - 1st February 2010
 * two have not got off lightly'' - The problem with indeterminate sentences, such as those in the Doncaster torture case, is that it is the minimum figure that sticks in people's minds - 25th January 2010
 * proposals on costs strike a blow for justice – and only the lawyers lose'' - Lord Justice Rupert Jackson favours the 'interests of the public' over the professionals in litigation - 18th January 2010
 * by jury: is an ancient right being diluted to save money?'' - Four accused of robbery to be tried by judge without jury - 11th January 2010
 * year, same old threats to legal system'' - What will 2010 offer the legal system? Not much that's new, whoever wins the election, and a great deal that's depressing - 4th January 2010
 * Saville report: late, costly – and unnecessary, too?'' - The government has first to study and consider it – it's rumoured to be 5,000 pages long – before releasing it to us - 21st December 2009
 * vicious, xenophobic attack on Italian justice'' - Much of the US reaction to the conviction of Amanda Knox has been a disgrace - 14th December 2009
 * of court reporters is a blow to open justice'' - Jack Straw's plan to put the results of criminal trials on the internet is to be welcomed, but can not replace the court reporting of yesteryear - 7th December 2009
 * it on the head, BBC. Judges don't use gavels'' - Once again, a television drama portrays a courtroom incorrectly - 23rd November 2009
 * tale of spot fines gone awry'' - Cautions may reduce the burden on courts, police time and cost less money – but downgrading serious crime cannot be justified - 16th November 2009
 * of the barrister: not a happy beast'' - I can no longer bear to listen to the litany of complaints that I know will emerge from their fevered lips - 9th November 2009
 * board revamp would be a risky business'' - The future of parole is not high on the government's list of priorities, but it deserves attention - 2nd November 2009
 * trial of words for the computer generation'' - Finding a reliable way of feeding evidence to juries by way of computers may need a fundamental reassessment of our trial system - 26th October 2009
 * and shaming carries a heavy price'' - Justice secretary Jack Straw's new adventure into naming and shaming in family courts could make things worse - 18th October 2009
 * reluctance to court celebrity'' - A new survey of the number of the times legal figures featured in the national and regional press in the last 12 months makes for interesting reading - 5th October 2009
 * new supreme court is a judge short – but far from underpowered'' - The law lords' move outside parliament could mean braver and more combative decisions - 28th September 2009
 * the top on Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's dossier'' - Scotland's chief law officer was wrong to criticise the efforts by Megrahi to challenge his conviction - 21st September 2009
 * free pardon for Michael Shields, but at what cost?'' - No country would want to return a prisoner if it believed that his government would find a way of negating his conviction and setting him free - 14th September 2009
 * Edlington pair would benefit no one'' - Lifting reporting restrictions that prevent the media from naming the two children would only put their lives at risk - 7th September 2009
 * conviction and lingering doubt'' - For many years, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's case has induced unease in the legal world - 31st August 2009
 * a lawyer's client a customer is plainly wrong'' - Forcing lawyers to have customers instead of clients puts them on a par with supermarkets - 27th July 2009
 * rocks the boat over raft of hasty laws'' - Trigger-happy government should slow down and think more when it comes to criminal justice - 20th July 2009
 * modern barristers be so very boring?'' - These days they address a jury as if they were accountants explaining a balance sheet - 13th July 2009
 * Jack Straw's lack of pardons'' - Justice secretary comes across as hard-hearted and cynical by keeping Ronnie Biggs and Michael Shields in prison - 6th July 2009
 * moral panic, another rushed bill'' - Hastily drawn, ill-thought out legislation created in panic rarely works - 29th June 2009
 * by jury? Not in these two cases'' - The decision seems to go against a basic principle of English justice. But should we be worried? - 22nd June 2009
 * justice sometimes has to get personal'' - A fascinating and honest account by Albie Sachs gives us a rare insight into how top judges make their decisions - 15th June 2009
 * officers deserve better, Mr Straw'' - By starving the probation service of the funding needed to do its job, how much is the government responsible? - 8th June 2009
 * quick fix for justice'' - The concern about virtual courts is that they will persuade innocent people charged with a crime to make a hasty plea of guilt - 1st June 2009
 * it time to open the door on jury rooms?'' - There can be no harm in allowing unidentified jurors to recount past experiences in trials - 25th May 2009
 * with the dichotomy of data stockpiling'' - The debate on how to control the accumulation of data is 10 years behind the technology gathering it - 18th May 2009
 * top judges, three low profiles'' - The retirement of David Souter, a US supreme court judge, generated more discussion in the UK press than the replacement of three law lords - 11th May 2009
 * on supersized prisons is not so titanic'' - The government is still fully committed to its counterproductive policy of providing more prisons in which to pack thousands more prisoners - 27th April 2009
 * change for media in family courts'' - The need to retain and enforce the anonymity of children in proceedings has, it seems, triumphed - 20th April 2009
 * am dreading the possibility that two young children will be forced to undergo a public trial'' - It is impossible not to have in mind the trial of the killers of James Bulger, who were both 10 at the time of the crime - 8th April 2009
 * rights need better judges in their defence'' - Reforms are needed in Strasbourg, but it is not an institution which should be discarded - 6th April 2009
 * is disgraceful that prisoners are still denied the vote. So why is the government still hesitating?'' - Conferring on most inmates the right to participate in our electoral system would be beneficial to them and to society as a whole - 1st April 2009
 * misgivings, trivial and not'' - the Council of Circuit Judges has expressed views on the way the courts impose sentences - 30th March 2009
 * of life or death are a trial for judges'' - The judges have made it clear that the 'right to life' enshrined in our human rights legislation cannot be an absolute - 23rd March 2009
 * in the judiciary: still a case to answer'' - It is already apparent that the diversity being sought in the legal profession is very slow in coming - 16th March 2009
 * Simenon's plot device had to go'' - To the French detective novel the juge d'instruction is essential. But the job is to be abolished - 9th March 2009
 * liberties need more than a bill of rights'' - I do not believe that Britain needs a new formal instrument. We have enough legislative tools - 2nd March 2009
 * blow for parents'' - Nicola and Mark Webster were wrongly deprived of their three children and now the court of appeal has ruled they can't get them back - 16th February 2009
 * revolution at the top'' - Eight months from now, 12 law lords will be turned into justices of the new United Kingdom supreme court - 9th February 2009
 * happened to trials on TV?'' - A strange thing happened to the once lively debate on the televising of trials in the courtrooms of England and Wales. It suddenly died - 2nd February 2009
 * is unreliable in its current form. So why do its users resist even modest changes?'' - It is hardly a secret that the hasty reporting of a current event is the enemy of context and accuracy - 28th January 2009
 * law is now big game'' - Sport and the law used to be strangers, today they are intimate friends - 19th January 2009
 * jobs on the bench are losing their lustre'' - It's a strange system of picking judges we have in England and Wales - 12th January 2009
 * stop fighting over the figures in 2009'' - The way crime statistics are presented by politicians is calculated to befuddle - 5th January 2009
 * fate is agonising dilemma for Straw'' - I do not know whether or not Michael Shields was guilty of the crime for which he was convicted by a Bulgarian court in 2005. But I am sure that should the justice secretary, Jack Straw, grant him a pardon, the consequences for many prisoners currently in foreign jails could be severe - 22nd December 2008
 * and responsibilities bill is all wrong'' - It is difficult to know what to make of Jack Straw at the moment - 15th December 2008
 * end the lottery in the lords'' - Have the Chagos Islanders been denied their right to return home by the vagaries and haphazardness of the voting system of our highest court? - 24th November 2008
 * dilemma more moral than legal'' - Keeping a dying man in jail pending appeal is unnecessary on the part of the Scottish court of criminal appeal - 17th November 2008
 * out on the net generation'' - Can the jury system survive the internet? - 10th November 2008
 * Kafkaesque excuse for ignorance of the law'' - You can only get to know the law if there's somewhere you can ascertain what it is - 3rd November 2008
 * questions on sharia'' - English courts should not just rubber-stamp sharia rulings. But how can they inquire into every consent form to ensure it complies with English legal tenets? - 27th November 2008
 * blow to justice in anti-terror bill'' - Clause 77 would give the home secretary the power to hold an inquest without a jury - 13th October 2008
 * right to chastise us'' - Does the law really treat children in Britain as badly as the United Nations seems to believe? - 6th October 2008
 * of Labour's most disgraceful, if low-profile, failures'' - Once, we had a proud legal aid system, providing legal help to people with a worthy case - 29th September 2008
 * on death row'' - So they finally killed Jack Alderman after all. More than 33 years after his conviction - 22nd September 2008
 * and equality: it gets worse'' - 15th September 2008
 * play in court, and a personal experience'' - In Britain we do not approve of criminal trials which take place in the absence of the accused - 8th September 2008
 * Sad farewell and a welcome arrival - This is the last week of the legal year, which brings one sad departure and an exciting arrival to come - 28th July 2008
 * Don't shoot that burglar - Many people hoping for an unrestricted green light to beat up or shoot their burglars or robbers, even unto death, will be disappointed - 21st July 2008
 * The burdens of being lord chief justice - In a blaze of hardly any publicity, Sir Igor Judge has been announced the next lord chief justice of England and Wales - 14th July 2008
 * Sense and sentencing - The ill-thought-out laws on sentencing under Labour have resulted in mass confusion - 7th July 2008
 * TV's legal fictions don't do the profession justice - 30th June 2008
 * Can we have fair trials and shield witnesses? - 23rd June 2008
 * UK shame and US pride - The   War on Terror in the UK and the US - 16th June 2008
 * Bringing justice to the provinces - at a price - It is absurd that places an hour or less from London continue to shell out for judges' lodgings - 9th June 2008
 * Symbolic and illogical - The government has fixed upon 42 as the number of days a suspect should spend in detention before trial - 2nd June 2008
 * Pay gap is all too black and white - If an investigation is being carried out to explain women solicitors' inferior pay, should the Law Society not do the same for the even more disadvantaged lawyers from ethnic minorities? - 26th May 2008
 * Judicial diversity goes into reverse -Expectations that the new system of appointing judges would lead to a more diverse judiciary have so far not been fulfilled - 19th May 2008
 * Happy birthday for the Ministry of Justice - 12th May 2008
 * Bad or mad? The public usually wants a full trial - The Josef Fritzl case - 5th May 2008
 * A mental block in policy - The majority of our prisoners suffer from various disadvantages - 28th April 2008
 * Haggling-style plea bargaining is not for us - 7th April 2008
 * Straw's penal vision - and a reality - 31st March 2008
 * Emotions run high over right-to-die case - 24th March 2008
 * Court TV? Let's forget it - 17th March 2008
 * Part-time judges can now retire at 70 but is there a need for a fixed limit? - 3rd March 2008
 * Bidding farewell to to some much-loved family court language - 25th February 2008
 * Our untidy constitution serves Britain well - 18th February 2008
 * Publicity-mad Sarkozy leads fight for privacy - 4th February 2008
 * All equal under the law - 28th January 2008
 * Who will be the first president of the new supreme court? - 21st January 2008
 * Time to defend the rule of law - ...on Clause 42 of the criminal justice bill - 14th January 2008
 * Time for judges to drop these absurd forms of address - 7th January 2008
 * Brown shows true colours in grim year for liberties - 31st December 2007
 * On legal aid, a judge bites back - 17th December 2007
 * Jack Straw calls his planned new jailhouses "Titan" prisons. I'm not sure the adjective is appropriate - 10th December 2007
 * No easy answer to reform of rape law - 3rd December 2007
 * Brown's baffling obsession with 28 days - 26th November 2007
 * Intifada image tested in France - 19th November 2007
 * BBC's cost-cutters guilty of rough justice - 12th November 2007
 * Unnamed royal is no secret on the web - 5th November 2007
 * The way judges are appointed is here to stay - 29th October 2007



The Guardian:
Column remit: Law, Society, Culture: reflections on legislation, value systems and received knowledge in the context of modern society - the columns always closes with a paragraph about Marcel's cultural activities during the week

Section: G2 features pages

Role: Columnist

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:marcel.berlins@guardian.co.uk marcel.berlins@guardian.co.uk]

Website: Guardian.co / Marcel Berlins

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Wednesday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length: 950 words



Articles:

 * Straw drags feet over prisoners' right to vote'' - Government fails to act on European court ruling that Britain's ban was a breach of human rights - 30th November 2009
 * fabric of our democracy has not been torn - it merely has a few stains on it, and they are removable'' - It is understandable that the expenses scandal has turned the nation into a collection of doubters and cynics. But the response has been exaggerated - 3rd June 2009
 * not saying that a celebrity cannot be a good MP, but fame alone is not a good enough credential'' - If I can think of one thing worse than a parliament consisting largely of second-raters, it's a parliament full of celebrities - 27th May 2009
 * has always been around in schools and universities - but the internet is making it far worse'' - Virtually everywhere in the world plagiarism by students is on the increase, with information being directly lifted from Wikipedia or Google - 20th May 2009
 * people were at the museum not to admire the art, but to take snaps to prove they were there'' - Anyone wanting to snap an exhibit ought to be forced to look at it first for at least a minute - or be fined - 13th May 2009
 * Stupid campaigners shouldn't whinge about police infiltration - it's a sign of their success'' - I am not in the least surprised by the police's tactics but I am surprised at the surprise of others that the police should be doing such things - 29th April 2009
 * music in libraries may encourage young people in, but it risks forcing older readers out'' - Libraries are particularly important to people at times of financial stress. Readers who used to buy books turn to borrowing them - 22nd April 2009
 * the French shrugged off their malaise - and the British gallantly picked it up for them'' - I have seen whole French news bulletins go by without a single bleak item about financial ruin - 15th April 2009
 * am dreading the possibility that two young children will be forced to undergo a public trial'' - It is impossible not to have in mind the trial of the killers of James Bulger, who were both 10 at the time of the crime - 8th April 2009
 * rid of tax havens, by all means. But it is disingenuous of Brown to claim they're relevant to our current crisis'' - They will reveal as little as they can get away with - and they have lots of very clever lawyers to make sure that little means very little - 25th March 2009
 * no mystery why lawyers are happy to defend men the public regard as monsters. It's called a fair trial'' - Josef Fritzl's lawyer has received death threats since it became known he was to represent him - 18th March 2009
 * government's plan to allow people to comment on public services online is lazy and ill-considered'' - Many people's opinions will be based not on careful consideration of their experiences, but on ignorance - 11th March 2009
 * discrimination laws could backfire on us if they end up keeping young people out of work'' - Our whole attitude to age and employment and their intimate relationship with pensions is in a confused mess - 4th March 2009
 * ambassador to the UK might throw a good party, but the role has lost all its stature'' - The thing about becoming an American ambassador is that no previous experience - of anything - is necessary - 25th February 2009
 * return of gangsters to Marseille has given me a reluctant feeling of pride and nostalgia'' - The city where I was born used to be known for gangster efficiency, innovation and a certain elegance - 18th February 2009
 * breaking rules over expenses and bonuses is all very well. But what about decency and morality?'' - Perpetrators of the 'I'm allowed to, therefore I'll do it' philosophy often do not seem to understand why their conduct has drawn criticism - 11th February 2009
 * snow may be lovely, but what's with this blizzard of totally meaningless statistics?'' - Every time some unexpected or unusual event disrupts the smooth running of our lives, there is always someone turning up on television or quoted in a newspaper telling us how much the chaos has cost the country - 4th February 2009
 * The snow may be lovely, but what's with this blizzard of totally meaningless statistics? - 4th February 2009
 * and Einstein may have been autistic. But is their genius an argument against a screening test?'' - 14th January 2009
 * teachers are boring. But is that the real reason pupils leave school unable to add or subtract?'' - I cannot believe that British children have a DNA preventing them from being competent with figures - 7th January 2009
 * that the recent high-profile cases prove is that the law regarding assisted suicide is farcical'' - It is ludicrous that every case of assisted suicide will have to be looked at individually only after the death has taken place - 17th December 2008
 * fear my stay in hospital has changed my tastes for ever. I'm hooked on Strictly, X and I'm a Celeb'' - I even rush home to watch my new favourite, Murder She Wrote - 10th December 2008
 * fuss over the Damian Green affair has been excessive. Parliamentary democracy is not at risk'' - I fear that this relatively unserious incident will be used to rearrange the relationship between police, politicians and government. This would be damaging - 3rd December 2008
 * list of the best 100 films, without a single British movie - is there an anglophobic conspiracy?'' - How can we get high up on all these lists unless British judges play the game? - 26th November 2008
 * well-meaning Barnado's poll that reveals adults' fear of children could do more harm than good'' - I fear that the words feral and vermin will stick, while the sentence 'Most children are good' will be forgotten - 19th November 2008
 * happy hour by all means. But let's not pretend that will stop young people drinking too much'' - Supermarkets are now the official villains of Britain's mass bacchanalia - 12th November 2008
 * parliament help people like Debbie Purdy die with dignity in the company of those they love?'' - It is far more difficult for the criminal justice system to look the other way if the situation in question is in the public eye - 5th November 2008
 * 16-year-olds cannot buy cigarettes, surely they shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a polling booth'' - Ministers should realise that teenagers do not possess the attributes to be able to put an X on a ballot form. They have not absorbed enough of the world - 29th October 2008
 * decision to ditch French for English is yet another blow for the most wonderful language'' - It gives me no pleasure, but the trend is inevitable. Even when the world goes astray, as now, the discussions of its chaos are carried out in English - 15th October 2008
 * we worry about the endangerment of all species? Pandas and tigers for sure, but armadillos?'' - 8th October 2008
 * it such a good idea to be a good Samaritan? Better perhaps to cross the road and live to tell the tale ...'' - 1st October 2008
 * web encourages lies and deceit. It's impossible to know who lurks behind a funny nickname'' - 24th September 2008
 * Law will spread suspicion and hurt among friends and neighbours, and children will suffer'' - How can a mother, told that her new boyfriend is a risk to her child, be expected to keep it a permanent secret from those close to her? - 17th September 2008
 * anyone as famous as OJ Simpson, surely known to every member of the jury, ever get a fair trial?'' - According to polls, more than half of Americans today still believe that Simpson was wrongly acquitted - 10th September 2008
 * pensioner who uses the wrong recycling bin is fined more than a violent thug. Call that justice?'' - 3rd September 2008
 * National Theatre is trying to attract younger audiences with £5 tickets. Will it work? I'm not sure'' - 27th August 2008
 * I hope new knife-crime measures will work, stopping and searching won't solve the problem'' - A cashier at Croydon's BHS asked a 15-year-old boy, 'You're not going to kill someone are you?' then sold him a folding handsaw - 20th August 2008
 * has produced more top-class fiction and films than any other sport, and I defy anyone to differ'' - 13th August 2008
 * The idea of imposing an indiscriminate curfew on kids is grotesque - 'I have a distasteful vision of the police riding around the streets of English towns and cities rounding up youngsters' - 16th July 2008
 * Being anti-smoking is fine, but the BMA's proposal to censor 'pro-smoking' films is ludicrous - 9th July 2008
 * Only when politicians have regained the trust of the people will they be rewarded with more voters - 2nd July 2008
 * Chinese South Africans have won the right to be classified as 'black' - how ironic - 25th June 2008
 * Whether the West End is too in thrall to celebrity or just too expensive, it's bad news for the theatre - 18th June 2008
 * Why has English Heritage denied Wallis Simpson a blue plaque on the basis of wild rumours about her love life? - 11th June 2008
 * A French judge annulled a marriage because the wife lied about her virginity. Could it happen here? - 4th June 2008
 * There is simply no evidence that naming and shaming the parents of troublemakers would solve anything - 28th May 2008
 * Let's write our language as we speak it. Then at least our children will be able to spell properly - Instead of blaming teachers, syllabuses and text messaging, let's put the blame where it really belongs - 21st May 2008
 * Foreigners will no longer pick our fruit and veg for a pittance. Is this the end of seasonal, local produce? - 14th May 2008
 * Junior courts are a bad idea - having the maturity to make decisions is not child's play - 7th May 2008
 * We like to tell the world how fair our elections are. But the shameful truth  is out: postal voting is a farce - 30th April 2008
 * A news junkie on holiday - 23rd April2008
 * The proposed mile-high skyscraper is a terrible idea: a gigantic folly pandering to a super-rich man's ego - 2nd April 2008
 * For Brown to boycott the Olympics would be hypocrisy when British business is busy wooing China - 26th March 2008
 * Heather Mills-McCartney might just have performed an important public service - 19th March 2008
 * Why is Derek Conway still in Parliament? Voters should be able to kick out dodgy MPs in mid-term - 12th March 2008
 * ...on the Tories' green paper "Prisons with a Purpose" - 5th March 2008
 * One restaurant has given in to intimidation and changed its menu. How many more will follow? - 27th February 2008
 * Importing foreign produce may damage the planet, but it also feeds families. Which is more important? - 20th February 2008
 * Why no outcry over Cameron's support for lying parents - 30th January 2008
 * ...on the UN security council - 23rd January 2008
 * The burning question is not exactly what our MPs get paid, but how that figure is determined - 16th January 2008
 * Obama and the death penalty - 9th January 2008
 * Will the next US president raise their country's spirits the way Sarkozy has in France? I doubt it - 2nd January 2008
 * Men accused of rape are being wrongly acquitted - thanks to jurors who think like John Redwood - 19th December 2008
 * Sarkozy may sacrifice human rights for commerce, and let's not kid ourselves that we're any different - 12th December 2007
 * The last lines to a classic story I adore were not written by it's author - I feel betrayed...I think - 5th December 2007
 * It helped us win two world wars, but now the noble racing pigeon is in officialdom's firing line - 28th November 2007
 * A history of murder does not enhance a property's value - but should tenants be compensated? - 21st November 2007
 *  Wether the teaching comes from home or school, children of a certain age are unreceptive to advice from adults - 14th November 2008
 * The sentence must fit the crime, but should judges start granting time off for poor prison conditions? - 7th November 2007
 * Thanks to the list-makers, future generations will now believe that Brian Eno is a musical genius - 31st October 2007
 * Russian museums are taking a risk in lending us their paintings. Let's hope they get them back - 24th October 2007



Links:

 * Wikipedia bio
 * MediaGuardian.co.uk special reports: Media Law | Privacy and the media | Royals and the media