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28 July 2023 / John Pointing
Issue: 8035 / Categories: Features , Profession , Environment
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Book review: Noise & Noise Law: A Practitioner’s Guide

132278
"A second edition of this useful book may be needed before too long"
  • Authors: Francis McManus & Andy Mckenzie
  • Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
  • ISBN: 9781399505055
  • RRP: £60

Complaints about noise nuisance resulting from the activities of neighbours form the largest category of nuisance complaints made to local authorities. The issuing of community protection notices under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 by the police and local authorities is driven by the desire to control behaviour-driven noise, ranging from being ‘significantly annoying’ for those living and working in the neighbourhood, to behaviour amounting to public disorder. Liability for causing nuisance or anti-social behaviour is contingent on whether acts (or omissions) are deemed unreasonable—a highly elastic concept, dependent on the circumstances of the particular case, and resistant to precise definition.

Nuisance law has proved challenging to legislators and judges, since people have had to live in close proximity to others and where residential uses of land meet the boundaries of other uses, such as

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Cripps—Radius Law

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A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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