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Reimagining the Law 8 June 2020
1. Transparency
The Ministry of Justice and HMCTS should adopt a comprehensive published information strategy and a manual with processes and definitions, making clear what is public and what is not. A standard data structure and format for judgments should be adopted. There should be a centralised public database of reporting restrictions.
Sir Ross Cranston QC & Jules Winterton
2. Mass production for human consumption
The law must now extend its care and concern and, increasingly, its protection to the hundreds of millions of sentient beings who every year suffer near-unimaginable pain, degradation and torment in the industrial horror that modern mass production of animal flesh for human consumption entails.
Edwin Cameron
3. Why the law matters
The law is our biggest moral system, our scriptures. Our societies could not exist without laws, and we need our laws to survive. But, unlike religion, the law hesitates to intrude on private morality. Is the balance right or should the law intervene more? The question raises grand issues of freedom versus restriction, issues which deeply affect our lives every day.
Philip Wood QC
4. Religious law in Britain today
The perception is that religious law is not recognised by the judiciary. However, regulatory instruments of Jewish, Christian and Muslim organisations, which commonly incorporate classical sources of religious law, are approved by bodies such as the Charity Commission. Courts should accommodate the operation of religious law in Britain today.
Professor Norman Doe
5. Marriage as a State function
There is a legal right to a Church of England marriage irrespective of personal beliefs. Today, it is untenable that the established Church must marry opposite-sex couples but cannot marry same-sex couples. Marriage should become a State function as in continental Europe. Optional religious marriages would not affect civil status.
Professor Mark Hill QC
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