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Reimagining the Law 30 June 2020

1. Reduce the number of long hearings

Why do we not carry out surveys to see how useful long hearings are at least in some fields - e.g. children cases? Put the papers in front of a judge for one or two days reading and a decision, and see how often the result is significantly different after a wearing and expensive 12-day hearing. For 50 cases (a pretty reasonable sample) it would cost 100 judge-days maximum (as the 12-day trials would happen anyway).
The Rt Hon Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury

2. Human rights impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic response has led to heightened risks of domestic violence. Governments should respond to the calls of the ILO Convention 190 (concerning the right to a workplace free from violence and harassment) to recognise the effects of domestic violence at work, and establish a practical role for governments and employers in mitigating those effects.
Anne Collins

3. One UK- Wide Legal Jurisdiction?

Post Brexit, is it not time to consider consolidation of the three constituent legal jurisdictions in the UK (England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland) into one to facilitate inward investment, remove inefficiencies and needless duplication of institutions, and to reduce confusion for foreign investors?
Keith Ruddock

4. EU law at the age of uncertainty

As the European Union has strived to respond to the challenges posed by successive crises, we will do well to recall the basics. Rule of law, democracy, equality, legal certainty, accountability and respect for individual rights are the defining values. These principles should guide both what is to be done and how to do it. Complacency leads to regression. Solidarity is a necessity and not a luxury.
Professor Takis Tridimas

5. A new continuum

With emerging technologies like blockchain and data sharing we need to accept that the days of regulatory and stakeholder centralisation are over. We will need to find a functional ideological medium of peace and pluralist democracy so that non-western liberal democracies can accept and live with it. Whether or not the Cold War between China and the US dissipates or escalates, a new set of pluralist values must lead us to a new deliberative democratic continuum.
Professor Dr Malik R Dahlan

6. Social purposes of companies

Revise s.172 Companies Act, within the context of the social purposes of companies, so that directors must take reasonable and effective steps to take account of all "environmental matters" and "social, community and human rights issues" as set out in ss 414A-C, with failure to do so being a breach of director's duties. The same would apply for senior managers.
Professor Robert McCorquodale

7. Redesigning equity finance

Charles Goodhart and myself propose to redesign equity finance by dividing equity holders into insiders (those with power to monitor and control corporations) and outsiders (those that lack such power). Insiders should have multiple liability, while outsiders would continue to enjoy limited liability. Our proposal can help the post-COVID recovery.Our proposal is set out at greater length in the paper published by the Oxford Journal of Financial Regulation  
Professor Rosa M Lastra

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