By Ayesha Sohanpal Ayesha is a 2nd year law student on the LLB course at UCL. Here she reflects on her experience of participating in the Homelessness case study as part of Laws Connections, UCL’s 2-week law course aimed at introducing first year undergraduates to the study of law and its role in addressing social…
Author: melissa.manley.19
Report from “Fight NOT Flight”: SPBC inaugural panel event on the Hostile Environment
By Surabhi Vanalia The UCL Student Pro Bono Committee held its first termly panel event on 21st November 2019, with a focus on recent and previous immigration policies which make up the ‘Hostile Environment’. This refers to laws and policies which make it difficult for migrants without secure leave to remain to reside in the…
The Inhumanity of Homelessness Law
By Laura Beaumont “Home is where the heart is” but, if that logic follows, around 320,000 hearts are lost in Britain currently. By bringing this housing crisis to my attention, Laws’ Connections prompted me to look beyond the black letter of the law and to evaluate legislation through human eyes. To exemplify this, the article shall…
UCL host Inter-University Amicus Debate on the Death Penalty
By Anushree Mehta On 12th November teams from King’s College London (KCL) and University College London (UCL) debated the motion “This House Requires Countries Opposing the Death Penalty to Sanction Pharmaceutical Companies that Provide Lethal Injection Drugs”. While the proposition (KCL) presented a strong argument that excessive harm caused by the lethal drugs should lead…
Exonerated from death row: An Evening with Peter Pringle and Sunny Jacobs
By Anushree Mehta On the 17th of October 2019, UCL’s Amicus Chapter welcomed two exonerees from death row to talk about their experiences with the injustices embedded in the American and Irish legal systems. Peter was a political activist in Ireland, framed for a crime he did not commit – and wrongfully sentenced to death….
Legal Challenge Launched Against ‘Hostile Environment’s’ Impact on Maternal Health of Migrants
By Surabhi Vanalia The ‘Hostile Environment’ adopted by the Home Office has been embedded into the delivery of health services. Charging for healthcare in particular affects the most disenfranchised in our society, including: victims of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), victims of domestic violence, trafficked persons, and children.
What the UK can learn from Ireland’s ‘Direct Provision’ Controversy
By Conor Courtney Direct Provision is an Irish approach to asylum law which incorporates a series of rights, and constraints, placed upon asylum seekers. These restrictions are places on those who are living in Ireland, awaiting the decision as to their status. Although the State provides many necessities with regards to asylum applicants, such as…
Volunteering: ‘You know your Housing Rights Project’
By Caroline Jixin Gao A second year UCL Law student, was one of eight students to volunteer for the pilot project, in partnership with Haringey Citizens and Hodge Jones & Allen. In this blog post, she reflects on her experience delivering public legal education on housing law in Haringey and the wider implications of the…
Human Rights as a Western Construct: India as an Example
By Ila Tyagi LLM student, Ila Tyagi, argues against ‘universal human rights’ as they are typically understood, drawing from cultural relativist arguments and using India as an example. In many developing countries, human rights are often considered to be western concepts imposed on them by foreign governments and treaties. The problem lies in the narrow…
Reflecting on my experience as a Grassroots Project Volunteer
By Ila Tyagi In this blog post Ila Tyagi, an LLM student at UCL, reflects on her experience volunteering for the Grassroots Human Rights Project and how the education system in the UK compares to the education system in her home country, India. When I first entered the state school in Eastlea, I couldn’t believe…