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Misconduct & sexual misbehaviour: blurred lines?

07 November 2019 / John Gould
Issue: 7863 / Categories: Features , Regulatory , Profession , Professional negligence
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In the age of #MeToo, what kind of misconduct could cross the line into the domain of a legal regulator? John Gould examines the role & limits of professional discipline
  • It is not the proper function of legal regulators to cast themselves as instruments of social change, nor to police sexual morality or general bad behaviour.
  • The key question is whether misconduct represents an ongoing risk that a person is not fit to practise.

`Sexual intercourse began In nineteen sixty-three (which was rather late for me)— Between the end of the “Chatterley” ban And the Beatles’ first LP’

I have no reason to think—although I haven’t checked—that Philip Larkin was ever a member of a disciplinary tribunal. Had he been forced to sit in judgement on the sexual conduct of other poets, he may have struggled to know where to start. He may have wondered whether the ethical standards of an artist were relevant to the quality of their art. He may have worried that

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Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
The ex-wife of a Russian billionaire has won her bid to bring her financial relief claim in London, in a unanimous Court of Appeal decision
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