Justice matters : essays from the pandemic /
edited for Justice Alliance by Jessie Brennan, Mandy Groves, Rhona Friedman, Sue James and Simon Mullings.
- xii, 138 pages
Battle for legal aid : I'm 100% sure statistics alone won't win the battle over legal aid / The constitution : The pandemic and the constitution / Justice system : 'If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change' / Justice system : what happens when a system has been starved for years on end / Society and justice : we would make a difference / Judiciary : disengaged from the process / Legal profession : we all must speak with one voice / Well-being : well-being for lawyers : feast or famine / Academia : greed will be all that stands in the way of change / Law schools : there has never been a more important time to listen / Society and rights : let's lay the foundations we need to build the better society we want tomorrow / EU citizens : EU citizens in the UK / Immigration : The immigration debate / Victims of trafficking : human connection / Roma people : Roma people in Europe / BAME workers : Covid-19 hits black and minority ethnic people the hardest / Community care : ensuring the hard-won rights of us all are not lost / Mental capacity : underfunding and disconnection in health and social care / Mental health : human contact is important / Disabled adults : shining a light on disabled people's rights / Disabled children : already in crisis / Transparency : remote justiceand transparency in the post-lockdown Court of Protection / Housing : the crisis of un-met housing need / Housing : all to fragile / Rent : what should possession law look like? / Community activism : collectivising our individual housing problems / Welfare benefits : making our benefits system work for us all / Employment : in protecting jobs, you save people's homes / Trade unions : the horro of the crisis has galvanised the legal community to find its feet and fight / Maternity rights : safety for all women, without exception / Discrimination : watch this space / Family : behind closed doors / Domestic abuse : working with the women's sector to combat domestic abuse / School exclusions : exclusions in the new normal : an irresistable demand for change / Youth justice : the youth justice system locks down / Police stations : ring, ring... / Criminal justice : racial injustice in the criminal jutice system / Criminal defense : the victims, not the recipients of justice / BLM protests : the Black Lives Matter Protests / Protests and policing : protests, policing, and the pandemic / Inquests : the culture of immunity and impunity / Prisons : prison law in lockdown / Prisoners : waiting on the outside : prisoners in the pandemic / Immigration detention : unable to breathe, locked down and locked in / Miscarriages of justice : pandemic or not, we need to talk about miscarriages of justice / Future of legal aid : r is for recovery / Community justice : out of the shop front / Responses : lawyers must play their part and put themselves at the service of the movement for change / Postscript : undated / Fiona Bawden -- Baroness Hale of Richmond -- Frederick Wilmot-Smith -- Chris Minnoch -- Nic Madge -- A District Judge -- Young Legal Aid Lawyers -- Mary-Rachel McCabe -- Dr. Daniel Newman -- Dr. Jacqueline Kinghan and Rachel Knowles -- Jamie Burton -- Matthew Evans -- Sadat Sayeed -- Victoria Marks -- Brigitta Balogh -- Marc Willers QC -- Nicola Mackintosh QC (Hon) -- Zena Soormally Bolwig -- Tam Gill and Sophy Miles -- Steve Broach and Anne-Marie Irwin -- Steve Broach and Polly Sweeney -- Celia Kitzinger and Gill Loomes-Quinn -- Karen Buck MP -- Giles Peaker -- Nick Bano -- Izzy Köksal -- Tom Royston -- David Renton -- Zachary Whyte -- Rosalind Bragg -- Aubrey Ludwig -- Lynn Vernon -- Cris McCurley -- Michael Etienne -- Kate Aubrey-Johnson -- Jacqui Appleton -- Melanie Simpson QC -- Rhona Friedman -- Patricia Daley and Quuenie Djan -- Lydia Dagostino and Jane Cleasby -- Deborah Coles -- Dr. Laura Jane -- Charlotte Henry -- Toufique Hossain -- Jon Robbins and Matt Foot -- Rohini Teather -- Sue James -- Helen Mowatt -- Carol Storer OBE.
"Justice Matters is a collection of essays which together tell a powerful story of the impact of COVID-19, the responses to it, and the hope for change. It seeks to document, in some small way, the effects of the pandemic viewed through the lens of the justice system. We are living through an unprecedented public health crisis. As the pandemic gathered pace, we started to see much more clearly that those in food poverty, from BAME backgrounds, in poor housing, insecure employment, the homeless, the elderly and the disabled were the worst affected. The virus exposed the underlying structural health, race and class inequality in British society. We saw that a decade of austerity had eviscerated health and social care and public services and plunged the justice system into crisis. But we also saw hope and what can be achieved if there is the political will. The homeless were housed and those seeking asylum were released from immigration detention. There was a stay on possession cases and a moratorium on benefit sanctions. Ordinary people looked out for each other in ways that we would not previously have imagined. We have worked together and shown what is possible through campaigning, community activism and public pressure, as well as legal challenges. The pandemic presents an opportunity for social-justice lawyers to catch the attention of the public, a chance to tell the stories we witness every day and to create solutions that help to build a more just and equal society. Justice Matters provides perspectives from frontline workers in community groups and legal observers at the Black Lives Matter protests, lawyers working with the most vulnerable throughout the pandemic, academia, members of the judiciary and parliament and Baroness Hale of Richmond on the constitution. Justice Matters is not intended as an end in itself but as the beginning and as a component of a larger discussion about the future, about equality and about justice." --