Latest News and Events

Thursday 23rd July 2009: Summer party / fundraising event

Commemorating 25 years since the miners' strike. Speakers will include Michael Seifert, John Hendy QC, Louise Christian, other lawyers, miners and journalists involved in the strike. Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2 (nearest tube Holborn) 7pm to late
Admission £10 practitioners, £5 concessions (drinks included in admission price)

download poster of the event here

New Haldane Society Twitter & Flickr pages.

www.twitter.com/SocialistLawyer

www.flickr.com/photos/haldanesociety/sets

Haldane vice-chair defends Briton accused of drugs smuggling.

Anna Morris, a barrister and Vice-Chair of the Haldane Society, is acting on behalf of the human rights charity Reprieve , to represent Samantha Orobator, imprisoned in Laos and accused of heroin smuggling, for the first time today.

Samantha Orobator, 20, from Camberwell, may face trial in Laos without ever having met the Laotian court-appointed lawyer. The government there has told Britain's Foreign Office that it will not invoke the death penalty. They agreed to this only after Anna Morris pointed out to them that their own law forbids executing a person who is "in a state of pregnancy." Meanwhile, the Haldane Society has written to the Foreign Office to ask them to raise with the Laotian foreign minister the fact that his government, which originally gave assurances that Anna Morris would be allowed to visit Samantha, now refuses to allow the visit.

The Haldane Society is asking the Foreign Office to obtain firm undertakings that Anna Morris will be allowed to visit with Samantha and that all her rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights will be guaranteed, including adequate time and facilities to consult with her court-appointed lawyer; to prepare her defence; to call and examine any witnesses required and to receive all appropriate medical treatment. We are also asking that, in the event Ms. Orobator is convicted - almost a foregone conclusion in Laos according to Reprieve, she should be permitted to serve her sentence back in Britain.

Haldane Chair's letter to Bill Rammell MP, Minister at the FCO, demanding justice for imprisoned Samantha Orobator.

Read the letter in full here

Thursday 23 April: Lawyers who go the extra mile.

Speakers: Aamer Anwar, Scottish human rights solicitor, tried and acquitted for contempt of Court for speaking on behalf of his clients.

Frances Webber, barrister specialising in immigration law, formerly at Garden Court Chambers. Download poster of this event.

The lecture is at the College of Law, 14 Store Street, London WC1E 7DE, nearest tube Goodge Street. 6.30pm. Admission is free. £10 charge for CPD points.

Thursday 12 March, Challenging Arms Suppliers in the Courts.

The speakers are Jamie Beagent, solicitor, Leigh Day & Co, who acted for Cornerhouse and Campaign Against the Arms Trade in the judicial review against the Serious Fraud Office's decision to drop the investigation into BAE, and Sarah Sexton from Cornerhouse.

Jamie Beagent is a human rights solicitor at Leigh Day and Co. He acted for Cornerhouse and Campaign Against the Arms Trade in the BAE/Serious Fraud Office litigation. Has also been involved in challenging the government on behalf of Guatanamo Bay inmate Binyam Mohammed and other environmental, immigration and unlawful detention actions.

Sarah Sexton is one of the directors of Cornerhouse. Since its founding in 1997, The Corner House has aimed to support democratic and community movements for environmental and social justice. It is motivated by the concerns of such movements, whether they be locally-based struggles for land or water rights or better health care; campaigns against destructive mining, dam or forestry projects; or struggles against racial discrimination. We aim to pay constant attention to issues of social, economic and political power and practical strategy. We try to take a "bottom-up" approach, filled with examples, to issues of global significance which are often handled in a more abstract way. As part of our solidarity work, The Corner House carries out analyses, research and advocacy with the aim of linking issues, of stimulating informed discussion and strategic thought on critical environmental and social concerns, and of encouraging broad alliances to tackle them.

The lecture is at the College of Law, 14 Store Street, London WC2, nearest tube Goodge Street. 6.30pm - 8.30pm. Admission is free. £10 charge for CPD points.

Socialist Lawyer 52

Socialist Lawyer commemorates 25 years since the 1984 - 1985 miners' strike.

...with articles by Davey Hopper, General Secretary of the Durham Miners' Association, Haldane President Mike Mansfield, John Hendy QC standing counsel to the NUM, Haldane Vice-President Michael Seifert, Pragna Patel from Southall Black Sisters, Gerry MacLochlainn from Sinn Fein, and others. This issue also covers Haldane's delegation to investigate conditions of detention in Turkey in 2008 and the recent publication of our pamphlet, talks to the Haldane Society by Eamonn McCann, Liz Davies, Louise Christian and others, and testimonies from the horror of Gaza.

Haldane lectures 2009:

Thursday 29 January 2009: Forty years on, lessons learned from the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement, Richard Harvey and Eamon McCann

Thursday 19 February 2009: human rights in civil proceedings, Louise Christian and Liz Davies

Thursday 12 March 2009: human rights in the criminal courts, speakers to be confirmed

Thursday 23 April 2009, lawyers speaking out for their clients, Aamer Anwar

All events at the College of Law, 14 Store Street, London WC2.
Nearest tube Goodge Street. Admission free.
There will be a £10 charge to legal practitioners requiring CPD points.

National Lawyers' Guild delegation to Pakistan

In January the Haldane Society's sister organisation in the USA sent a delegation to Pakistan. Their report called for the immediate restoration of an independent judiciary.
Read the report