Emma VS Law

Essential law. McNae. Journalism. Genuinely clueless on this one.

Previously if anyone had brought up topics regarding politics, the government and in general the legal system I would be running for the hills. Not only did i find it incredibly boring and way out of my intellectual capacity, i could never really get my head around any of the systems or techno language my fellow peers not only used but seemed to understand. However i am pleasantly surprised and strangely excited for my second lecture this week after thoroughly enjoying my first introductory journey into what law really is.

To begin our lecture we looked at some of the newspapers printed on that day, after discussing "Rhiannas fun bags", "Girl who eats bricks" and some relatively other utter rubbish it was clear that apart from the tacky stories printed, most of the content revolves around crime stores. Crime is one of the biggest sources of the news, usually hitting the front page making it incredibly rare to find newspapers without any criminal reports or stories.

The Three States: Otherwise known as the seperation of powers used as the model for the governmence of state.

Executive: This state known as the "department of state" runs the country.

Judicicary: Determines the seperation of powers - free society.

Legislate: Oversees the judges, parliament and can pass new laws.

Journalism is related to Human Rights, with the rule of law in a free society, with free speech and the right of citizens to criticise the government and to expose corruption/menace to the publics well being, which then introduces the term "The Fourth State" reguading journalists. This allows them to police the criminal justice system and act as the publics eyes/ears, with the idea of Free Press to keep the stories honest.

Photography taken by myself

So far not so bad right? I actually and unbelievably managed to understand most of the information Chris was leading us through. After covering the three states we swiftly moved on to the legal distinction maintained between civil and criminal court matters and how each one differentiates.

Civil law: Held in a county court, this deals with disputes between citizens where the community at large is not much affected, except for there be the need to resolve disputes, for example divorce.

Criminal law: This deals with offences against society as a whole, this being murder, violence in general or as blasphemy or offences against another person which are abhorent to society as a whole which includes rape, fraud, murder or robbery.

It is extremely important that journalists know the distinctions between crimes. For example robbery VS theft - these terms are used in casual speech but in law have an exact meaning. If you accuse somebody with the wrong distinction, an example being if you called somebody a theif when in fact they are a robber, you can then libel him and he could then sue you for libel.

Libel: A civil complaint. Citizens affected can sue and claim for money.

We soon arrived at the concepts reguading Indictable (arrestable offences) and Non- indictable offences to explore the differences between them.

Indictable: A term used for more serious crimes (or accusations) such as murder, which carry a sentence of more than five years. Once arrested the subject must be brought before a Magistrate within 24 hours and police must show that there is enough evidence to proceed.

Non-Indictable: The term used for crimes (or accusations) with a sentence of less than five years. The police cannot arrest, unless there is good reason (eg. the person is drunk, a danger to themselves or others or is likely not to appear in court.) Otherwise the accused will recieve a summons to turn up at a Magistrates Court.

Magistrates court: ALL crime begins here. This is where the sentence is passed. For example if a murderer is sentenced it then immediately goes to Crown Court. There is NO jury.

Old Baileys court: Found in London, this deals with the threat of witnesses being hurt and/or killed. This often relates to issues with gangs/mobs.

Crown court: The main criminal court. Serious criminal offences may be "committed" and must be tried in front of a jury.

For a suspect to be arrested or tried there must be two standards. The standard of truth and The standard of proof otherwise known as The evidence gap.

The standard of truth must be skeptical and have valid information that is able to prove what is being said in order to pass a conviction.

The standard of proof however must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. In practise the police/ prosecution must have these three things:

1. A confession

2. Forensic evidence

3. An eyewitness/s

The jury is not allowed to prosecute on the balance of probability.

Finally we came to the rule of double jeopardy simply meaning that a suspect cannot be tried twice for the same offence. We learnt that the police will not arrest unless they are certain they can get a good conviction therefore not wasting time, money of effort on a case that is likely to have a low conviction rate due to insufficient evidence.

ALOT to take in right? Luckily with the teaching of Chris and my reliable copy of McNae and various other sources i feel quite enlightened and surprisingly, extremely looking forward to the next chapter of law.