The NSW bar wins a round in the six year struggle to get Stephen Archer struck off the roll. Court of Appeal overturns ADT orders for production of documents. Archer claims the bar knew about his tax and bankruptcy affairs, and did sweet FA ... more

What are the Charter of Rights naysayers on about? Existing legislative and entrenched rights haven’t managed to derail society. Yet these protections have proved more miss than hit. Stephen Keim surveys three recent decisions from the full Federal Court ... more

In two different cases the full Federal Court has dealt with ASIO and its obsession with secrecy in markedly different ways. One bench virtually rolled over to be tickled on the tummy by the chief spook. The other one stood its ground and said the court was not going to be a patsy for the state apparatus ... more

British Psychological Society calls for “witness experts” to sort out wobbly memories … Top UK firms get to grips with the recession with £1 billion plus revenues … Humiliating boss to fork up over breasts and pay jibes … Gordon Brown as the suggestible Heathcliff ... more

Articled clerk Vicki Mole has to take extraordinary measures to escape the glaring intensity of the Firm. It’s nice being a lawyer, but not for five days a week ... more

The death penalty has been found by the US Supreme Court, with a little help from the swinging justice, to be an excessive sentence for child rape. A consideration of the constitutionality of the death penalty in murder cases may not be far away. Stephen Keim SC examines the way the law is evolving ... more

Junior Junior, our freshly minted baby barrister, starts her blog with a cry of despair over finding chambers, work and money. Was a life at the bar such a fabulous idea after all? ... more

Evan Whitton covers the Pope’s visit and cruelly brings up some Vatican crimes … From October civil judges in Britain will have to dress up at home … Rugby quizz … And how come Labor hack Eddie McTiernan’s limpet view on “beyond reasonable doubt” still stands? ... more

Sunk in a sea of caveats, a bankrupt purchaser and loads of litigation, two Perth musicians have lost their property and their livelihood. Jonathan Gadir investigates ... more

Those with a prominent legal pedigree used to be carried by their firms. Now, as Lizzy Street discovered at her firm, having a well connected legal name might get you in the door, but it doesn’t guarantee survival ... more

Providing cover for the “dirty” cases … Tulkinghorn teases apart the fiction of one of the bar’s prized ethical flourishes – the “cab rank” rule. Isn’t it about time it was scrapped? ... more

No decision on CJ – logjam in Ruddy’s office … Ron Sackville’s new job … Kirbs and same sex super … Much ado in Van Diemen’s Land – wig crisis and jobs-for-favours investigation ... more

Senator Wild Bill Heffernan is at it again – making whacko allegations in the senate about Justice Michael Kirby, although this time he carefully didn’t name the judge ... more

Bar incandescent with fury over depiction of barristers in Beeb’s Criminal Justice ... An army of flatfooted “community police” take to the streets … Victory for the gangs as the House of Lords sinks growing trend for courts to allow “anonymous” witnesses ... more

Vicki Mole’s law firm knows how to welcome in the new financial year – with a themed gangster night. How appropriate ... more

Capricornia is in the crisp grip of spring, while the southern do-gooders huddle around their Emissions Trading Scheme-certified heaters. Buffalo Bruce from Darwin covers the antics of the usual northern suspects, including: Easter, Bushy, Superfish, Falstaff, Owl, Pirate and Kunstler ... more

Roger Fitch in Washington celebrates Independence Day with the latest talk on torture as Addington and Yoo front the House Judiciary Committee … No surprises in Roberts’ and Scalia’s dissents in the most recent habeas decision … The Bush-Cheney team have only 200 days left in which to wreak havoc ... more

Wine buff G.D. Wendler remembers modest Max Schubert and asks why we prefer to worship Grange Hermitage rather than just drink the stuff? ... more

There was a last minute scramble to rectify a gaping deficiency in Justice Wayne Haylen’s appointment as a deputy president of the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal. So that the judge could hear disciplinary cases against lawyers, he had to be rescued with an emergency judicial elevation. Revised version ... more

The NSW Law Society wants lawyer advertising rules to be liberated, while keeping tight control of what constitutes “legal work”. As a recent Supreme Court judgment shows both restraints are locked in an awful embrace ... more

Justice Berna Collier goes down in a planning appeal against “overbearing” Hamilton Hill development. Sir Terence O’Rort contrasts this brutal decision with Her Honour’s sensitive treatment of a couple of “assistance animals” ... more

US Supreme Court has said the federal courts can have the bodies of the Guantánamo prisoners, and a lot more besides. The Boumediene decision further unravels the Bush administration’s carelessly stitched terrorism laws ... more