He was a great legal academic….but wouldn’t have been a great advocate in the courts…he’d have got you 6 months jail for riding a bike without lights!!

Nevertheless, is there anyone who would deny that the following paragraph from the article on the launch of PILS (quoted above) does not provide sufficient evidence for the potential benefit afforded by public interest litigation.

“Previous PIL cases in Northern Ireland
taken by other organisations have resulted
in the right to transport to school during
respite care for a severely disabled young
person; a successful challenge to the
decision to continue to detain a mental
health patient in hospital which was based
largely on a lack of adequate suitable
community accommodation; and a
successful challenge to a Health and
Social Services Trust’s decision to move
an elderly man to a less expensive
residential care home because neither he or his only relative could afford to pay the third party top up charge of £20 per week. “

As to Stephen Livingstone, many’s the argument I had with him over the CAJ and other self-styled ‘yuman rites’ organisations, who had no problem colluding with terrorists throughout Northern Ireland, as they both sought to demean the state, one through terrorism, the other through perceived wrongs and questionable allegations of abuse by these self, same terrorists.

By the way, did Stephen’s body ever turn up? It was sad that he seemed to suddenly vanish off the face of the earth. He was a very bright guy, an excellent legal mind and not scared of articulating his views.

Rapunsel

Why the use of the sectarian epithet? Does it mean that criticism of lawyers is now to be filed under the “religious bigotry” classification?
Are there any other professions that we should go easy on?

Annoying it may be, but it’s clear that NI can’t help itself,

It certainly can’t pay its own way, and is something of a vagrant on the world stage.

There’s a limit to how much others are prepared to pay for a unionist unwillingness to relate to and work with their neighbours.

We stopped that nonsense in Alabama in 1960/70s. Why should we still have to be playing wetnurse to unionists in 2009.

Thirdly re the Human Rights Trust which receives so much from AA – my understanding is that it was set up by – Martin O’Brien when he was Director of CAJ so that CAJ would be secure (hence pensions for people who work for the CAJ …geddit) – it now ‘receives’ monies too for Human Rights Consortium …which I doubt knows its CAJ history. In its Annual Report CAJ does not mention the Human Rights Trust side to its ‘business’. Would be interesting to know who are the Directors of the Human Rights …could be people we know. When the Charities Commission gets going people will have a way of finding out.

But a more important point is – why on earth did the NIHRC buy into this money mess – making it vulnerable to accusations of lack of independance? But then why is NIHRC embriolled in discussions with NIO regarding the request by its 10 Commissioners to have pension rights (as well as £10,000), given that many give service to quangos for no money at all?.

Seems to me that with money, comes vulnerability. Will they never learn?

Small minded and ill informed petty jealousy is alive and well on Slugger I see. Equality and Human Rights ‘industry’? This is a familiar insult refrain from the ‘political industry’, which is every bit as reliant on the public purse for its dysfunctional, querulous, navel-gazing nonsense – a public purse to which lawyers contribute plenty in tax.

Wasn’t that the one where ‘local people’ went around to have a chat with young people involved in ‘anti-social behaviour’ {like not doing what the Shinners told them or annoying ‘the community’} and tried to ‘mediate’ the problems after blowing their kneecaps off became unfashionable.

It still seems to exists and if you google it and look at Street View, it looks a very high class operation for the £1.35m

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?layer=c&cbll=54.554082,-6.024410&cbp=12,,,1,&ved=0CBAQ2wU&sa=X&ei=r_YWS_T0OJS9jAflmY35DA

They obviously spend all the money on the volunteers, not the offices

I assume it is all done in the nicest possible taste and fully respecting the human rights of the poor victims and the young people who may have strayed from the true path.

Anyway, has CRJ produced a report on it?

On on the exiling of people from NI?

The disappeared perhaps?

The environmental and health damage caused by laundering diesel in South Armagh?

I have no great knowledge but is Atlantic Philanthropies not a private organisation. id say they can do whatever they want with their money? At least they’re getting up the noses of the small minded posters hers