Search results for ""Author Luke Clements""

'Poor people get hit by cars too; they get evicted; they have their furniture repossessed; they can't pay their utility bills. But they do not have personal legal problems in the law school way. Nothing that happens to them breaks up or threatens to break up a settled and harmonious life. Poor people do not lead settled lives into which the law seldom intrudes; they are constantly involved with the law in its most intrusive forms. ... Poverty creates an abrasive interface with society; poor people are always bumping into sharp legal things. The law school model of personal legal problems, of solving them and returning the client to the smooth and orderly world in television advertisements, doesn't apply to poor people.' Stephen Wexler 'Practising Law for Poor People' The Yale Law Journal. Vol. 79: 1049, 1970. This book is concerned with the legal problems encountered by people whose lives are disadvantaged: disabled people, carers, homeless people, people on low incomes, people falling foul of immigration law ... it is a long list. People in this position often experience multiple and synchronous legal problems ('clustered problems') for which the traditional 'single issue' lawyering approach is ill equipped. Such people - to cite Stephen Wexler - 'do not lead settled lives into which the law seldom intrudes; they are constantly involved with the law in its most intrusive forms'. Their legal challenges don't come in single discrete packages (eg a personal injury claim, a house purchase, a divorce) but are multiple, interlinked and successional. No sooner has one problem been addressed than another is encountered. The research underpinning this work derives from a six-year study of the legal challenges experienced by disabled children and their families and of many more years trying (all too often unsuccessfully) to use the law to challenge the myriad social injustices that define the lot of those who live with disadvantage.

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Since the Conservative government's reform of the law and policy relating to accommodation for Travelling People (Gypsies and Travellers) in 1992, there have been no changes to the legislation, despite a major review of housing law and policy commenced by the current Labour government in 2000. A primary motive given for the 1992 legal reforms was financial: that the cost to the public purse of providing sites for Travelling People was unjustifiably high. Yet no study was ever done into the costs of not providing sites. In addition to exploration of the financial costs experienced by local authorities in the UK, both as landowners and as providers of public services, the book also examines the financial, human and social costs suffered by private landowners, police services and Travelling People themselves. The book places these costs in context both by exploring the process of change to law and policy in this field in 1992, and the issues now raised by the 'Best Value' regime and other new obligations placed on public bodies by human rights and race relations laws. The book will be invaluable reading for practitioners and policy makers in housing, planning, equality issues, education, welfare and policing at local and national levels. It will also be of interest to social policy and social work academics and students, and to Travelling People themselves.

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This book seeks to examine the impact of the Human Rights Act legislation from the viewpoint of judges, lawyers, civil libertarians, politicians and academics. Investigation of the Human Rights Act since it came into force in 2000. Contributors include Sir Stephen Sedley, Thomas Mullen, Roger Smith and Lord Lester of Herne Hill. Offers insights and suggestions for developing a more effective, accessible and successful employment of the Human Rights Act.

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Over the past two decades, there has been increasing recognition of the ways in which disabled children and adults have been denied human and civil rights that others take for granted. In the year 2000, the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force. This book reviews the implications of the Act for disabled people. The book provides: an overview of key policy and legislative developments in the UK in relation to disabled children and adults in the post war period; an outline of the European Convention on Human Rights, The Human Rights Act 1998 and related procedures; an account of the ways in which disabled people's human rights have increasingly become a matter of concern and the implications of the Human Rights Act in relation to specific issues; a debate about the ways in which public bodies and practitioners within them can engage positively with the provisions of the Human Rights Act to develop better practice. Disabled people and human rights will be of interest to both disabled people themselves and organisations representing their interests, professionals whose work brings them into contact with disabled people, and students of social work, social care, disability studies and law.

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Now in its completely updated second edition, this accessible guide provides essential information about how the law can be used to promote good practice and policy development for disabled children and young people.The authors take an anti-discriminatory and inclusive approach that involves parents and children in decision-making and advocacy. They summarise recent research on common needs and problems of disabled children, young adults and their families, and what support services are valued by them. Individual chapters cover issues affecting children at different stages in the lifecourse, including receiving diagnosis, ensuring educational and social inclusion, and establishing autonomy and independence in early adulthood. The overlapping legal responsibilities of social services, health and education are explained and changes arising from the Children Act 2004 are highlighted.Disabled Children and the Law is an essential reference for practitioners, policy makers, students and families.

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