Faculty of Business and Law

The place of the criminal defence lawyer in the modern criminal justice system is a given; every suspect and defendant expects full representation as a right. However, the defence lawyer appeared surprisingly late in the long and venerable history of the English and Welsh legal system. Notwithstanding the defence lawyer‟s role as advocate for the accused, this unique professional role involves a variety of duties and obligations. This article will focus on the historical development of these core principles of criminal defence as well as the expansion of the role in the general context of adversarialism.

Criminal defence lawyers advance and protect some of the most fundamental rights of citizens in liberal democratic societies.  Legal representation and assistance is a central principle of due process: whether needed in the Police Station or the dock, delivered by Barristers, Solicitors, Higher Court Advocates and Accredited Representatives.

In May 2012, the Law Society hosted its annual Criminal Law Conference, this year entitled ‘Fighting For Justice’. The conference focused on the future of legal aid funding in criminal law services, particularly criminal defence representation in the police station and courts. What emerged from the conference was the impression of a defence profession embattled by Government reforms and cuts. In this review, four of the addresses given will be summarised with critical commentary. The article is broadly divided between two ‘sides’ – the Government, with its pro-reform approach, and practitioners and academics, critical of the changes that have occurred in criminal funding and procedure in recent years. However, one address attempted to straddle both sides of the argument with interesting reactions. Whichever way the conflict is resolved, there will clearly be significant implications for criminal defence practice and procedure, adversarial justice, and fair trial rights in England and Wales.

This article examines the methodology behind an empirical study investigating the
‘real life’ role of criminal defence  lawyers and their approach to ethical conflict
resolution. Using a normative conceptual framework entitled the ‘zealous advocate’
model, the study involved interviews with defence practitioners. A central feature of
the interviews was  a method known as the ‘vignette technique’, which used
hypothetical scenarios to simulate realistic ‘conflict’ situations for respondents to
consider.  This article summarises the theory behind the study, examines the
methodological issues of empirical research with lawyers, examines the benefits and
limitations of the ‘vignette technique’, and details the construction of the ‘Professional
Conduct Scenarios’ which were used in the study.

This short article discusses the importance of trust in workable relationships between criminal defence lawyers and their clients, arguing that it was essential to abandon the proposed removal of client  choice for criminal legal aid clients in order to preserve effective defence services. It also examines the conflict of interest presented by harmonised fees for trials and guilty pleas, the impact this could have on  trust in the lawyer-client relationship, and the potential influence of remuneration on lawyer behaviour.

This article discusses empirical fieldwork undertaken at the ‘Justice For Sale’ meeting of criminal defence lawyers, in May 2013. The fieldwork aimed to explore the views of defence lawyers in relation to the ongoing programme of reforms in their area of practice – particularly those launched by the ‘Transforming Legal Aid’ consultation in April 2013. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, the fieldwork asked respondents about price-competitive tendering (PCT), client choice, QASA, direct action, their relationship with the Government and the impact the reforms would have on the service provided to suspects and defendants. The article examines the data collected and its meaning, identifying patterns in the responses provided. It concludes by discussing developments
in the area since the fieldwork, and speculating on the next steps that may be taken by the criminal defence community in this year of significant change for criminal legal aid.

Increasing investment in agricultural land by global corporations and investors from wealthy developed nations in poorer, less developed countries has significant human rights and environmental impacts. Proponents of such land deals argue that they provide opportunities for improvements in agricultural practices and generate employment, which will benefit economic growth in host countries. However, there is growing evidence that the phenomenon known as ‘land grabbing’ displaces poor and vulnerable populations and damages the environment, which in turn exacerbates poverty and food insecurity. This article explores the impact of land grabbing in Ethiopia and examines the human rights and sustainable development frameworks within which land grabbing takes place. The article argues that a human rights approach is fundamental to reconcile the sustainable development imperatives of economic development and environmental protection in the context of land grabbing. It advocates an integrated human rights and sustainable development approach as a holistic framework for assessing the impact of land grabbing and for the development of policy and regulatory responses.

According to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, “[c]limate change not only exacerbates threats to international peace and security, it is a threat to international peace and security.” Scientific forecasts have determined that climate change causes direct changes and damages to the environment that may then indirectly affect human beings in the long-term. This chapter argues that climate change in certain circumstances, particularly where human adaptation to the changing climate is ineffective, can spark armed conflicts which, in turn, negatively affect the environment and the population, thereby leading to a new cycle of destruction. In these circumstances, the affected population has to adapt to the situation, or in some cases leave for a more habitable environment. Such migration or direct negative effects of climate change on the environment, could trigger conflict within and with other communities as people compete over dwindling resources. For example, UNEP highlighted the causal link between climate change and armed conflict in its 2007 report entitled Sudan: Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment. More recently, the issue of climate change contributing to conflict has been brought up in relation to the conflict in Syria. While climate change regulation exists via eg the UNFCCC, it is argued that the focus of such regulation on mitigating global greenhouse gasses, though important, will not be able address wider, more pervasive challenges resulting from climate change. Beyond regulating the source of climate change, climate change adaptation is equally as important and as such, a climate justice approach to meeting adaptation issues is key. Climate justice, a concept built on the platform of equitable development, human rights and environmental justice, focuses on the unequal burden of climate change impacts on the most vulnerable and seeks to safeguard their rights, particularly by promoting more equitable and fair allocation of such burdens at the local, national, and international levels. Therefore, using the examples of the conflicts in Darfur and Syria, this chapter explores using the concept of climate justice together with existing guiding principles on peace and security of the UN system to more effectively meet the challenges created by climate change-armed conflict issues.

This paper draws upon educational research to examine lecturers' conceptions of teaching introductory accounting. A critical review of relevant research indicates that lecturers' conceptions of teaching may be speci®c to particular disciplinary and educational contexts. Thus the context of introductory accounting may yield its own unique domain of lecturers' conceptions of the objectives, approaches, outcomes and problems of teaching. A model of teaching conceptions ) is identi®ed as particularly relevant for the analysis of conceptions within a disciplinary context. The phenomenographic research study reported in this paper analyses lecturers' conceptions of teaching introductory accounting within the framework of Fox's model. Results indicate both the relevance of Fox's model as well as some key contradictions and uncertainties within conceptions of the teaching of introductory accounting. Such contradictions and uncertainties have to do with, amongst others, a tension between a professed priority for conceptual understanding, a dif®culty in articulating concepts and an emphasis upon technical mastery of topics and problems. The results indicate the need for further research but also provide a conceptual framework through which lecturers might re¯ect upon the manner in which introductory accounting is, and can be, taught.

This article is the introduction to the special issue on 'Critical and Alternative Approaches to Leadership Learning and Development'. This article reviews the past approaches to researching and theorising about leadership learning and development and proposes a shift towards critical and alternative approaches. This article then describes the various articles in the special issue and how they contribute towards this paradigm shift.

The Problem. This article considers concepts of toxic and bad leadership from a critical, post-structuralist perspective and illustrates how this can be conveyed to management students through the use of film analysis. In response to the paucity of critical approaches within toxic and bad leadership studies, we suggest that film is a useful way of developing in-depth discussion in student and management groups to uncover underlying subtleties and complexity in leadership theory and practice. The Solution. We connect to film clips from Batman: The Dark Knight, and explain how this film is used with students and managers to illustrate the ambiguous nature of " good " and " bad " leadership and explore the fluid, shifting, and relational nature of these two concepts. We conclude that students and managers can recognize this more readily through viewing, discussing, and analyzing film clips such as the ones discussed herein. The Stakeholders. University lecturers and...