Abortion in Northern Ireland: has the Rubicon been crossed?

On 7 June 2018, the Supreme Court delivered their long anticipated ruling on whether the abortion laws in Northern Ireland are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Although the case was dismissed on procedural grounds, a majority of the court held that, obiter, the current Northern Irish law was incompatible with the right to respect for private and family life, protected by Article 8 ECHR, “insofar as it prohibits abortion in cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality”. This Supreme Court decision, seen alongside the May 2018 Irish referendum liberalising abortion, and the 5 June 2018 Parliamentary debate seeking to liberalise abortion laws in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, places renewed focus upon the abortion laws of Northern Ireland and Great Britain, which suggests that the ‘halfway house’ of the Abortion Act 1967 Act finally be close to being reformed to hand the decision of abortion to women themselves

The provision of fire services in rural areas

Fire services have been neglected in discussions of public service provision in rural areas. The way in which they are provided has a broader significance in terms of current debates about risk management. Fire service policy was transferred away from the Home Office, but the Bain Report provided the major stimulus to change. Early central government attempts to stimulate fire service provision in rural area were hampered by a lack of cooperation between local authorities. Rates of death from fire are influenced by attendance times and are particularly high in remote rural areas. The development of national standards of fire cover was focused on protecting property rather than saving lives with disproportionate funding being provided for urban areas. Social changes in rural areas have made it more difficult to secure sufficient numbers of retained fire fighters. It has proved particularly difficult to provide an adequate service in remote rural areas such as the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, despite recent policy initiatives there. Problems of providing fire cover are particularly acute on isolated islands. The development of integrated risk management plans should offer a more fine grained approach to providing fire cover. However, they may be too sophisticated for the task in rural areas and more traditional democratic mechanisms for expressing perceived community needs may have a greater relevance

Magna Carta, the Rule of Law and the Limits on Government

This paper surveys the legal tradition that links Magna Carta with the modern concepts of the rule of law and the limits on government. It documents that the original understanding of the rule of law included substantive commitments to individual freedom and limited government. Then, it attempts at explaining how and why such commitments were lost to a formalist interpretation of the rule of law from 1848 to 1939. The paper concludes by arguing how a revival of the substantive commitments of the rule of law is central in a project of reshaping modern states

Commentaries on the laws of England. [electronic resource] : In four books The fifth edition. By Sir William Blackstone, one of his Majesty's Justices of the Honourable Court of common Pleas.

Vols. 3 and 4 have imprint: Dublin: printed for John Exshaw, Henry Saunders, Mary Hay, Elizabeth Lynch, James Williams, John Milliken, Josiah Sheppard, Charles Ingham, and Thomas Walker. MDCCLXXIII.Backlog2007Electronic reproduction.English Short Title Catalog,Reproduction of original from Harvard University Law Library

An analysis of the laws of England. [electronic resource] : To which is perfixed [sic] an introductory discourse on the study of the law. By William Blackstone, Esq. D.C.L. Barrister at Law, Vinerian Professor of the Laws of England in the University of Oxford, and Solicitor General to Her Majesty.

P. lxi misnumbered lx.Electronic reproduction.English Short Title Catalog,Reproduction of original from Harvard University Law Library

Commentaries on the laws of England. [electronic resource] : Book the second. By William Blackstone, Esq. solicitor general to her majesty.

In this edition, catchword p.3: use.Electronic reproduction.English Short Title Catalog,Reproduction of original from British Library