Gender – although unmarked in many reports – is central to key stories in the news these days. It is gender – in the form of patriarchal masculinity – that is on trial in the high-profile cases currently before the courts. Marianne Thamm is one of those who has drawn attention to the way in […]
Shrien Dewani
Posted inNews/Politics
Divorce can be deadlier than criminal law
While I specialised in criminal law in 1997 I have been inundated with divorce matters almost from the time that I elected to narrow down the cases that I would be prepared to deal with. The problem is that ordinary people, both men and women, who feel slighted or emotionally scarred by their spouse’s conduct, […]
Posted inGeneral
Dewani trial: Why none of the stories makes sense
Dan Newling, a Cape based journalist who writes for the UK Daily Mail, has taken an in-depth look at the murder of Anni Dewani while she was on honeymoon in Cape Town during 2010. The article, which includes substantial details of the events leading up to the murder, includes a number of compelling questions which […]
Posted inGeneral
Is Google the vehicle of choice for murderers like Tabak?
Vincent Tabak, the Dutch national who murdered Joanna Yeates, apparently used Google to research the definitions of “murder”, “manslaughter” and “sexual assault” in the days and weeks after committing the egregious crime. Tabak, no doubt, was trying to assess his prospects in employing a defence which, if he was caught, would allow him to admit […]
Posted inGeneral
Knox, Murray, Dewani and Nazi justice
On Monday night I watched the trial of Dr Conrad Murray, who is charged with the involuntary manslaughter of pop icon Michael Jackson, and the decision on the appeals of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito against their 2009 convictions for the murder of British university exchange student Meredith Kercher. In the case of the former, […]