Weekly Update

The Coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has brought upheavals around the world at a speed and on a scale beyond any other crisis in the current century, as governments and societies scramble to mobilise resources to slow its spread and support vital health care systems.

This week the impact on UK workplaces widened dramatically. As with other institutions, it is affecting the way the Bingham Centre works. Working from home has become the norm. With the help of Zoom, Whats App groups, Slack and online meeting, our work continues.

The Coronavirus pandemic is primarily a public health emergency rather than a legal crisis. However, there is still a place for the Rule of Law, particularly when it comes to scrutinising the UK's legislative response to the crisis. In this Weekly Update we detail our first publication from this work and the approach we will take to our scrutiny.

This Update also brings you news of our events programme, which has now moved online. While we regret to announce the postponement of next week's speech by the Director of Public Prosecutions on prosecutorial independence, we have been able to proceed with virtual roundtable meetings on digital combating of modern slavery (this week), and a discussion of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements for terrorism offenders (next week), which will take the form of an expert dialogue with the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, Jonathan Hall QC, who is currently reviewing these issues. The terms of reference of that review can be found here.

Our research and publication programme has been less disrupted and we are able to share our latest report on the Brexit negotiations and the far-reaching issue of regulatory divergence or alignment which they are addressing.

Read our full Weekly Update here