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Membership for the society will be available from the Bar Society stall at the freshers’ fair for the small price of £5.
For more information, please contact Turan Hursit (th0681@
bristol.ac.uk), President of the Bar Society 2013/2014.
html, where you will also be able to find contact information for the
HRIC’s Research Associate.
Bristol Law Conference
Bristol Amicus is a student society that aims to promote the
work of Amicus, a small legal charity which helps to provide representation for those facing the death penalty in the United States.
Amicus was founded in 1992 in memory of Andrew Lee Jones,
a black man who was convicted of murder by an all-white jury and
executed by the state of Louisiana in 1991.
The charity has helped to save lives: in the case of Bobby Purcell, a defendant who was 16 years old at the time of his offence in
Arizona, two lawyers from Bristol drafted an amicus curiae brief for
the sentencing hearing, explaining the position regarding the execution of minors in international law. This helped to persuade the judge
to pass a life sentence instead of a death sentence.
During 2012/13, Bristol Amicus has organised a number of
events to raise awareness about the death penalty, including: successful talks by Mark George QC and by Sunny Jacobs and Peter Pringle,
two death row survivors; an entertaining debate between current and
former Bristol law students about the arbitrary application of the
death penalty; and occasional film and discussion evenings. We also
help to provide members with training, casework and internship opportunities in the USA.
If you would like to become a member, please visit: http://
www.ubu.org.uk/activities/societies/6112/. A nominal membership
fee of £2 will be charged. The AGM is held at the beginning of the
final term when we will be electing new members for the Bristol
Amicus executive committee. Please e-mail amicus.bristol@gmail.
com for further information.
The Bristol Law Conference is an annual conference organised
by Bristol Law students. It aims to showcase the School of Law as a
centre of legal excellence by presenting some of the best legal minds
that the country has to offer. The 2013 conference was the first of its
kind amongst Russell Group universities. Speakers included Baroness Hale, Supreme Court judge and Chancellor of Bristol University,
Lord Hunt, Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, and
Nick Gargan, Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Constabulary.
The speeches were followed by a panel discussion, in which Gillian
Phillips, Director of Editorial Legal Services at The Guardian, also
participated. The event was open to all UK university students and
took place in March.
A new committee is appointed at the end of the spring term,
not long after the event. Organisers must decide on a theme, liaise
with speakers and secure sponsorship for the event. They must
attend weekly meetings in the months leading up to the event to
consolidate progress, as well as sending out e-mails and making calls
when required. Unsurprisingly, this becomes more time-consuming
as the event approaches.
If this sounds like something in which you would like to get involved, look out for the e-mail that is sent by the organisers following
the conference in March. If you would like to apply for a committee
position, you will have to outline your ideas for the following year’s
conference and any relevant experience that you may have.
Any other questions relating to the Law Conference should be
e-mailed to [email protected].
Human Rights Law Clinic
The Human Rights Law Clinic is a clinic whose work caters to
organisations dealing with alleged human rights violations. It exists
under the umbrella of the Human Rights Implementation Centre.
Under the supervision of staff, student caseworkers support cases
brought by national and international organisations by providing
background research which is presented largely in the form of reports. In 2011/12, the Clinic undertook projects concerning issues
such as immigration detention, arbitrary detention, and the admissibility criteria to bring a case to the European Court of Human
Rights. The Clinic provides an excellent opportunity for students to
gain hands-on experience in Human Rights Law.
Information about applications is sent out in October of each
year via e-mail. Applications are only open to students who have
undertaken or are currently undertaking a module involving human
rights law, and require a letter of interest and a CV. Students can
apply to be caseworkers or for the positions of Student Director or
Assistant Director. The latter two are responsible for coordinating
work between the partner organisations of the Clinic and student
researchers. Caseworkers are expected to dedicate a few hours a week
to their research. Those applying to be Student Director or Assistant
Director should be prepared for a variable workload; some weeks,
there may be only a few hours of work to do, whereas other weeks
may be busier if organisation deadlines are approaching.
Student research for the Human Rights Clinic gets started in
November/December and continues until April.
For more information, please consult the HRLC website:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/law/research/centres-themes/hric/hrlcl.
Amicus
Howard League for Penal Reform
The Howard League for Penal Reform Society at Bristol University is a student branch of the oldest prison reform charity in
Britain. As a student society, the Howard League aims to enhance
public knowledge of deficiencies in the penal system, campaign for
reform and raise funds to enhance the work of the central charity in
London. This is achieved through scheduled speaker events including community project leaders and ex-prisoners, trips to prisons and
alternative justice initiatives such as The Clink in Cardiff. It is an ideal
opportunity for those who are passionate about restorative justice,
proper scrutiny of prison reform proposals and the active remedy of
high reoffending rates in Britain.
Anyone can join at freshers’ fair at the start of each academic
year, or can get directly in touch with the committee at a later date. A
small membership fee of £3 will be charged.
Events are ad hoc but generally occur during term-time only and
members are entitled but not required to attend all organised meetings. Therefore, the time a student member commits to participation
in Howard League activities is entirely at their own discretion. Those
wishing to participate to a greater extent can run for an executive
position at the AGM which is held in the final term of each semester
and advertised through the UBLC. No previous participation is required in order to run for a committee position.
For more information on membership, events or committee positions contact [email protected].
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