What comes to mind when you think of a law student?

Do you think of a young, handsome, clever man in a fancy suit and tie? Or your best friend who went to law school just because they hated maths and were kind of good at winning arguments?

In fact, for the majority of human history, women never really fit in the picture. Although the symbol of law itself, Lady Justice, is female, women were mostly excluded from the profession until the 20^thcentury. Nowadays the situation has actually considerably altered,and it may just be that women outnumber men in some Universities.

For those of you who are law students or lecturers- next time you are in class, look around. What do you see? Chances are, you would notice that the ratio of women to men in the room is significantly leaning towards the former’s side. According to recent statistics, the percentage of women studying the LLB in England and Wales works out overwhelmingly in their favour- 68,8%. This is reflected in a similar way across the pond in America where the statistic is 56,49%. Our own Glasgow Caledonian University does not fall behind in this trend with a staggering 72,4% of law students here being female in the academic year of 2019/2020.

But what does this mean? Have all hurdles for women disappeared with the progress of time? Why are we even doing this project since it is in fact men who appear to be disadvantaged in certain circumstances? The truth is, while there are more women in higher education than ever before, as the career progresses and as you look into different fields the numbers start lowering. Substantially. For example, according to the ‘first100years’ project, as of 2016 women amount to only 125 of the 462 Scottish Advocates, 21 out of the 112 QCs and 9 out of the 31 judges!

Although these are not the only legal professions out there, it is important to recognise the stark difference between how few women pursue them and how many study law in general. Are females looked at differently at interviews or do they simply avoid those positions due to their nature? The reason can be as sinister as women being seen as more unreliable in the long term due to childbirth or not a good fit for the job because of their “inherent femininity”. Or are we, as women, just not confident enough in our ability to tackle such male-dominated fields?

What is clear is that University might not be a good indicator for women in the legal profession. Our research suggests that, even though there are less of them studying the LLB, men have a much higher chance to succeed in higher positions of power than their female counterparts. Through our ‘Women in Law’ project we aim to find out why that is, what hurdles women still face and what can be done to increase equality within the legal sector as a whole.

On the 3^rdof October 2019 Scotland became the first country in the UK to make it an offence to smack your child. The ban on all physical punishment was introduced by Green MSP John Finnie and was backed by 84 votes to 29.  Although Scotland may be leading the way in the UK, legislating against smacking children is not a ground-breaking concept. Sweden became the first country to ban smacking back in 1979, and Scotland is now the 58^thcountry in the world follow suit. Wales is also on the verge of introducing a ban but there are no current plans for England or Northern Ireland to introduce legislation of this type.

The ban removes the defence of reasonable chastisement. When deciding whether the chastisement was reasonable, the courts would take into account factors such as; the nature of the punishment, its duration and frequency, the age of the child and the effect it had physically and mentally. Now children in Scotland have the same protection from assault as adults.

There are critics of the ban including the Scottish Conservatives and some child psychologists. There has also been a campaign against the ban led by ‘Be Reasonable Scotland’. They argue that the smacking ban is unnecessary, will not help vulnerable children and may lead to ‘traumatic intervention’ in ‘good’ families. In support of the ban, some Paediatricians argue that smacking can cause long-term harm and leads to the development of more aggressive behaviours. The passing of the Act has been hailed as a step forward for child’s rights and shows the change of societies view on physical discipline on children.

It will be interesting to see how the new legislation is utilised in practice and what changes we might see unfolding in the next few years.

By Carys McIntyre, Law Clinic volunteer, LLB3

As part of our ongoing ‘Women in Law Wednesday’ series on our social media we chose to put our Academic Director, Claire McFadzean, in the spotlight. As well as being the Academic Director of GCU Law Clinic, Claire is also a Lecturer in Law here at GCU, a Solicitor and a Senior Fellow (HEA). We have chosen Claire this week not only because she is a driving force behind the Women in Law project and the clinic, but also because she provides all of us here at the clinic with guidance and support in pursuing our own careers as women in law. Anyone that has taken a module run by Claire will know how valuable her lessons are. As well as taking you through what you need to pass the module, Claire’s classes always focus on skills that you can take forward into your career. When moving into 3^rdand 4^thyear and applying for traineeships, it becomes clear how important this is.

We asked Claire about her career journey so far, ‘I am very proud to have qualified as a solicitor and worked for a number of years within the legal profession as a commercial lawyer. In 2006 I decided to alter the trajectory of my career and moved from practice to academia. I now have the privilege of teaching the next generation of lawyers.’

We also asked her what being a ‘woman in law’ means to her, ‘throughout my career I have had the pleasure of working with a number of inspirational women who have provided me with both support and opportunity for development through their mentoring. As a woman in law I think it is important to pay this forward for the next generation of women’.

If you have any suggestions for who should be our next ‘Women in Law Wednesday’, please let us know @gculawclinic on Twitter and Instagram.

Where They’re At Now…

Ex-Student Director: Evan Crainie

Evan Crainie was one of the founding members of the GCU Law Clinic who started off as Assistant Office Manager in 2013. Over the year in this role, Evan worked closely with the other managers in the running of the Clinic. His role involved organising the volunteers, managing all documents for the Clinic and assisting with the initial stages of setting up the clinic as it had only just opened.

After his initial year, Evan then took up the post of Student Director. In this role, Evan was responsible for the drive to recruit more volunteers and get younger years involved in the Clinic to ensure that once he graduated, there were many students who could take on new management roles and perform at the same high standard. In recruiting more volunteers, the Clinic worked at a more efficient pace and could provide a better service for the clients.

Evan thoroughly enjoyed his time as Student Director and credits the experience gained as one of the reasons for securing his traineeship.

Evan is currently in his second year of his traineeship at Shepherd & Wedderburn LLP and is due to qualify as a solicitor in August 2018.

Another year, another 10K legal walk in honour of raising funds for the Access to Justice Foundation.

The annual 10K Legal Walk took place on Monday 9th October 2017 in order to raise money for free legal advice charities. These charities help those in society who do not qualify for legal aid and cannot afford a solicitor. The GCU Law Clinic understand the importance of this and we share this same goal of increasing access to justice.

A staggering 2/3 of the UK population do not know how to access legal advice and 13 million cannot afford it. Our aim is to widen access to legal services within the local community. Since cuts in both government funding and legal aid have forced many advice centres to close, we are working extra hard to raise funds to help bridge this gap.

Some of our volunteers and members of our management team headed down to Buchanan Street to represent the Law Clinic in the sponsored walk.

Throughout the evening, we walked alongside other advocates of access to justice such as members of Legal Spark and The Law Society of Scotland. The 10K took us all around the city centre before finishing up where we started, where all participants were invited to go for well-earned snacks and drinks.

The GCU Law Clinic managed to raise £175 for the Access to Justice Foundation. The Legal Walk is always a great opportunity for our volunteers to connect with other people in the same field and learn more about their ways of increasing access to justice.

GCU LLB Law and Law Clinic Alumnus, Ian Laing, made his mark on the legal world when he landed an unprecedented traineeship at the WS Society.

Ian Laing was an honours law student here at GCU and in his 4th and final year, he earned the position of Student Director of the GCU Law Clinic 2015/16. During this whirlwind year, Ian had great success in the Law Clinic, forming an excellent team with great rapport. This was also the year the Law Clinic were finalists in the Scott + Co Scottish Legal Awards 2016, and the year that Ian and his fellow classmate, Ryan Bell, led the Law Clinic to victory in their first ever court appearance. Ian was also shortlisted for the GCU Student Associations ‘Student of the Year’ award, which is university wide.

Both the law department and Law Clinic here at GCU were sad to part with Ian upon his graduation as he went to embark upon obtaining a Diploma in Legal Practice. However, Ian has continued to support the GCU Law Clinic in a supervisory role as he remains a passionate advocate for increasing Access to Justice.

Following the successful completion of the diploma, Ian began his journey as trainee solicitor for the WS Society in September 2017.

The WS Society is the incorporated body of an exceptional brand of Scottish lawyers known as Writers to the Signet or “WS” with over 500 years of heritage – Ian being the first trainee ever to exist in these 500 years. Ian spoke of how he achieved such a unique opportunity, saying:

I would definitely say I am humbled by my Director, Anna Bennett WS, having enough faith in me that she would create the first traineeship in the 500+ year history of the WS Society for me. It is an exciting opportunity to train right in the heart of Scotland’s legal fraternity and for her to build in two secondments to the traineeship which are tailored to my interests – a litigation seat in Halliday Campbell WS and a sports law seat in Lombardi Associates are incredible. A tailor made traineeship is rare!”

Ian stated that, unlike a typical traineeship, there was no application process to land this role, as he already had a foot in the door. Ian initially secured a place on the WS Society summer internship programme in 2016, which he said he felt was due to the opportunities he had received as part of the GCU Law Clinic team.

Being able to say I had already acted for a client in court and been part of a student-led team ranked as finalists in the Scottish Legal Awards really helps you to stand out.”

As his time on this summer internship came to an end, Ian was then offered a legal assessment role within the team for the remainder of summer 2016 and subsequently part-time during his diploma year 2016/17.

Luckily for both Ian and the GCU Law Clinic, Ian’s director is supportive of his desire to retain involvement in the Law Clinic and has even extended an invitation to the Law Clinic to attend WS events throughout the year. The Law Clinic is grateful that it will have the continued support of such a successful alumnus and ambassador for his successors of the Law Clinic, and we look forward to see what the future holds for Ian.

Arbitration is a requirement which is commonly included with contracts. This means that whenever there is an issue with your contract, you have given-up your right to take the matter to court as you have agreed to arbitration, and as arbitration is legally binding a Sheriff or Judge would not entertain your claim.

This can cause problems where the cost of arbitration (which can be rather astronomical depending on which institute the clause requires) completely outweighs the cost being claimed under the contract. However, all is not lost- as there is a way to defeat an arbitration clause.

Section 10 of the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010 states that the court must cist those proceedings insofar as they concern the matter if:

• An arbitration agreement provides that a dispute on the matter is to be resolved by arbitration (whether immediately or after the exhaustion of other dispute resolution procedures);
• The applicant is party to the arbitration agreement (or is claiming through or under a party);
• Notice of the application has been given to the other parties to the legal proceedings;
• The applicant has not taken any steps in the legal proceedings to answer any substantive claim against him, nor otherwise acted since the legal proceedings were brought in a manner indicating a desire to have the dispute resolved by legal proceedings rather than arbitration; and
• Nothing has caused the court to be satisfied that arbitration agreement concerned is void, inoperative or incapable of being performed.

As regards the last criterion, regard should be had to Section 89-91 of the Arbitration Act 1996. Although this is an English Act, these sections apply in Scotland also. They have two broad effects:

Section 89(1) which subjects consumer arbitration agreements to the Consumer Rights Act 2015; and

Section 91(1) which provides: “A term which constitutes an arbitration agreement is unfair…in so far as it relates to a claim for a pecuniary remedy which does not exceed the amount specified by order for the purposes of this section.”

Therefore, this states that an arbitration agreement will be automatically unfair, and thus not binding on the consumer, so far as it relates to a claim for a pecuniary remedy which does not exceed an amount specified by in the Unfair Arbitration Agreement (Specified Amounts) Order 1999, which is £5,0000.

However, if an agreement is not automatically unfair it may be adjudged under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, this statute refers to a situation where an arbitration clause is imposed on a consumer, and will not apply where the parties enter into a freestanding arbitration agreement, nor where the parties genuinely agree to insert an arbitration clause into the contract. If agreement led to the insertion then it will not be held unfair, per Rimer J in Bryen and Langley Ltd v Boston [2005] WWCA Civ 973. Yet, it can be argued to be unfair if, at the time of creating the contract, the clause was not brought to the consumer’s attention and implications explained, as per Ramsey J in Mylcrist Builders Ltd v Buck [2008] EWHC 2172.  This is to ensure that the consumer is not left at a disadvantage, with no legal remedy, due to the cost of arbitration being significantly higher than the cost of litigating.

Therefore, if you (or your client) are faced with an arbitration clause which is just not plausible in seeking a remedy then you may still have the option of court intervention in a situation where the arbitration clause would cost more than the cost incurred under your contract.

Law students from Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) are helping Glasgow school pupils to stand up for their human rights.

 Human Rights Day, (10th December 2016) commemorating the day in 1948 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The 2016 campaign urges the public to ‘stand up for someone’s rights’, a call being heeded by Bachelor of Laws (LLB) students through the GCU Law Clinic.

Since its launch in 2014, the Clinic has provided advice to a wide range of clients and taken to Glasgow city centre to offer its services.

Our Street Law programme runs interactive workshops with pupils, making them more aware of the laws that affect them in their daily lives. Six schools have taken part so far, with further sessions planned in the New Year.

“Human rights are a key theme for Street Law and always spark great discussions amongst the pupils,” explained fourth year LLB student Rachel Bond, the Law Clinic’s Student Director. “And the Human Rights Day campaign of standing up for someone’s rights is exactly what the GCU Law Clinic is about. We are proud to provide free and confidential advice to people who wouldn’t otherwise qualify for Legal Aid or afford professional legal advice.”

GCU Law lecturers are involved in a wide range of human rights-related research, including examining organ donation law and end of life choices as well as access for socially disadvantaged people to the European Court of Human Rights and legal remedies for the victims of historic sex abuse.

Law Lecturer Dr Andrew Tickell said: “Human rights now underpin a startling array of our legal scholarship and teaching. They are at the heart of our constitutional law, central to immigration, animate ongoing Scottish debates on land reform, and go to the core of the law of international development. For lawyers, human rights issues are everywhere.”

And human rights is also a major focus for public policy analysts at GCU who lead research into the impact of public spending cuts on women, disabled people and carers.

GCU delivers the MSc Citizenship and Human Rights, a popular part-time programme for professionals and volunteers in the third and public sectors.

Dr Angela O’Hagan, Lecturer in Social and Public Policy, said: “In Scotland just now we have opportunities to respond differently on issues of equality, care, migration, public services – issues that are central to the MSc in Citizenship and Human Rights and are shaped by what is going on across the world.  All of this reinforces the importance of human rights principles and the need to develop human rights based approaches to policy and services in Scotland.”