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Under English law, what dictates that you must have a name?
At first glance it seems like a stupid question: of course you have to have a name. But do you? And if so, from when?
You don’t get given a name the instant you’re born, so there’s obviously some length of time during which you’re entitled [...]

It seems like it should be quite the showdown. In the one corner we have one of Northern California’s “Top 100 intellectual property attorneys”, who has been published in CIO magazine advising software companies to build or purchase a portfolio of software patents, who has recently assisted a Global Fortune 100 company in “establishing an [...]

According to the Daily Mail, (via No2ID), the latest line from the UK government is that although you won’t be forced to have an ID card, if you opt out you’ll not be able to have a passport.
If this is indeed likely to be true, it’s yet another reason why people should renew their UK [...]

This week Northern Ireland finally catches up with the rest of the UK by moving to a decriminalised parking regime.
Of course, in the rest of the UK, council after council is finding that they didn’t actually implement this properly, and are having to cancel all the parking tickets they’ve issued (other that those of the [...]

The government brought in control orders to target suspects who could not be prosecuted in courts. This could be because the evidence against them had been collected by bugging the suspect - and was therefore inadmissible. - BBC News

Dear Government,
Having to produce admissible evidence is not a bug in our legal system. It’s a feature.
Please [...]

I’ve been ranting about the proposed Abolition of Parliament Act to all and sundry for weeks now, and people just look at me as if I’m mad. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m becoming as incoherent as Marc, or because people really still believe that the government will generally “do the right thing”, [...]

The Diary of a Criminal Solicitor quotes a Sunday Mirror article on the blunders and delays that make up much of the business of the Magistrates Courts.
When I first had to sit through a day’s proceedings at the Belfast Magistrates Courts (to challenge a parking ticket), I was amazed at how shambolic the [...]

The supply of food is in general zero-rated for VAT: see section 30 and Schedule 8, Part II, Group 1, item 1 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994. But there are exceptions. One exception is confectionery: see item 2 of the Excepted Items. But there is an exception to that exception: cakes or biscuits [...]

This entire debate is well worth a read…

Many Members who have spoken today have expressed concern about the civil liberties aspect of the Bill. I propose to ignore that and to deal with what concerns me, as a practical Yorkshireman - namely, the practical and political issues. This Bill is unnecessary. It sets up a [...]

Every company in the UK has to file two documents annually with the Registrar of Companies - their accounts, and a “shuttle return” listing the company’s address, directors, shareholders etc. The dates by which these must be filed are different for each company, but determined by law.
And of course, just like anything that’s determined by [...]

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