Under Pressure - An Introduction

All day, every day, members of different legal professions experience pressure in various ways. Academics feel the pinch to publish high quality articles while some deal simultaneously with the need to impart the (sometimes) trite banalities of the law on their (sometimes) unwilling students. Attorneys frequently work in high-pressured environments and have the weight of their client’s woes resting on their shoulders. Advocates are called on to present their client’s cases in court and are often hauled over the coals by judges. Judges face the distinct pressure of having to decide the matters before them. This entails a host of unique pressures – for example, for in some cases, judges actually make law (but this statement entails a long philosophical debate which I have no time to enter into right now – but is perhaps a good subject for a future blog, watch this space) and in other jurisdictions, where the death penalty is a recognised criminal punishment, they are literally called on to make life or death decisions.

Today, I (as a recent graduate/academic/aspiring member of the judiciary) face a different kind of pressure to those discussed above – the pressure to blog – the most recent post ‘Calli fail’ is indicative of the unrelenting nagging I have been experiencing. So here it is…my introductory blog *queue applause*

I envision this blog as a forum for discussion on interesting current (and even past) areas of legal debate. I also see this blog as serving two further purposes. The first is to be informative about the legal system itself – as many people’s views are only slightly jaded by television series’ such as Ally McBeal, Boston Legal etc [perhaps an even better way of shattering these misconceptions is to spend a day at a Magistrate’s Court].

The second is to act as somewhat of an ‘Ode to Private Law’ (well from my side anyway). Private law is the branch of law that essentially regulates relations between private parties. It is often overlooked and its importance downplayed when contrasted with what some people refer to as ‘sexy’ public law (yes, people refer to branches of law as sexy or otherwise). I hope that this blog will remind people of the importance of the branch of law that does a lot of the legwork in their lives on a daily basis.

As for what you can expect from me in terms of future posts, I am sure there will be wit, intelligence and interesting legal tidbits in abundance - a bit like the average conversation with me.