28 h. ago Home Bargains and The Range among 28 shops forced to change online returns policies following Martin Lewis investigation

HOME BARGAINS and The Range are among 28 shops forced to change their online returns policy following a Martin Lewis investigation. Back in July, the founder of Money Saving Expert (MSE) discovered some 28 shops and cafés’ policies suggest consumers have fewer rights than what the law entitles them to. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013,...

Economics

5 d. ago MoJ to remove right to trial by jury for thousands of cases in controversial overhaul

Exclusive: Courts minister says change needed to stop criminals opting for juries to delay cases, sometimes by years, and clear huge backlogUK politics live – latest updatesCriminals will be stopped from “gaming the system” by choosing trial by jury in order to increase the chances of proceedings collapsing, the courts minister has said, promising to enact radical changes to limit jury trials by the next election.Drug dealers and career criminals were “laughing in the dock” knowing cases can take years to come to trial, Sarah Sackman told the Guardian, saying inaction would be a road to “chaos and ruin”. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Trial begins in archdiocese of New Orleans’ $230m settlement for abuse survivors

US bankruptcy judge will decide whether plan is fair to 650 survivors and dozens of other creditorsThe archdiocese of New Orleans has begun a three-week confirmation trial that will determine whether a federal bankruptcy judge signs off on a $230m settlement meant to compensate 650 clergy abuse survivors and resolve one of the US’s longest-running and costliest church bankruptcies.US bankruptcy judge Meredith Grabill will decide whether the plan – five and a half years in the making – is fair to the survivors and dozens of other creditors who have waited through repeated delays, contentious negotiations and a protracted legal fight over a 2021 state law giving survivors of decades-old child sexual abuse the right to sue. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Rape victims in Scotland will be protected when giving evidence, says lord advocate

Supreme court ruled ‘rape shield’ laws to limit intrusive cross-examination may breach men’s right to fair trialScotland’s most senior law officer has moved to reassure victims of sexual abuse that they will be protected after a supreme court ruling warned that Scottish laws designed to limit intrusive cross-examination could be breaching men’s right to a fair trial.In a strongly worded statement, the lord advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, said: “I would like to make clear that I understand sexual abuse inflicted upon women and children to be the single greatest challenge our justice system faces. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Human rights law overhaul planned as part of Mahmood’s sweeping asylum reforms

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood plans to rewrite how Britain grants refuge to those fleeing conflict and upheaval with a statement in the Commons.

Events

2 w. ago ‘Existential and urgent’: what impact will ICJ climate ruling have on Cop30?

Decision by international court of justice hailed as a gamechanger for climate justice and accountabilityIn July 2025, the international court of justice delivered a landmark decision that clarified that all states were bound under international law to tackle the human-made climate crisis, which the judges unanimously concluded posed an “urgent and existential threat” to the planet’s life-sustaining systems and therefore humanity itself.The ICJ advisory opinion built on rulings from hundreds of climate lawsuits across the world over the past decade or more, and added further legal weight to strong decisions from the inter-American court of human rights in July 2025 and the international tribunal on the law of the sea in May 2024. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Surge in antisemitism investigations at US universities after October 7 attacks, data shows

A report shared exclusively with the Guardian documents how a civil rights law has become a tool to impose ideological priorities on US schoolsUS government investigations into universities over antisemitism allegations surged following the 7 October 2023 attacks and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, with more investigations open in the last two months of that year than in the two decades prior, according to a report published on Monday that was shared exclusively with the Guardian.The data, compiled by the Middle East Studies Association and the American Association of University Professors and relying on publicly available records, offers a detailed account of how landmark civil rights legislation – and particularly Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act – has become a primary tool to restrict speech on campus. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago ECHR chief is ‘absolutely ready’ to discuss changes to human rights law

The Council of Europe’s secretary general Alain Berset told the BBC he was open to engage on migration issues over the treaty.

Politics

3 w. ago How the European convention on human rights became a battleground between the centre and the right | Daniel Trilling

For 20 years, populists have been blaming the ECHR for endangering Britain by offering basic protections to immigrantsIn the latest series of Blue Lights, the BBC drama about police officers in Belfast, there’s a scene where a constable insists on staying with a mentally ill man until a nurse arrives. “This is an article two issue,” the officer tells his colleague – by which he means that under article two of the European convention on human rights (ECHR), incorporated into UK law by the 1998 Human Rights Act, the state has a duty to protect life. It is an uncontroversial example of how the ECHR, which turns 75 this week, has found its way into everyday life across the UK.In Westminster, withdrawal from the ECHR has become a new rallying cry for the right, which claims it is the solution to unauthorised migration. In early October, Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives said they want to take the UK out of the convention if they win the next election. Last week, MPs voted down a largely symb...

Events

3 w. ago Just Stop Oil activists who sprayed Stonehenge with orange powder cleared of criminal damage

They cited human rights law in their defence

Events

3 w. ago Will new Renters' Rights Bill cause your rent to go up? What tenants need to know as it passes into law

The new law, which received royal assent on Monday, introduces sweeping changes for tenants

Society

3 w. ago MPs vote down Farage’s proposal for UK to leave ECHR – UK politics live

Lib Dems say ECHR protects ‘our elderly and most vulnerable the very people who need it most’Mark Sedwill, the former cabinet secretary and former national security adviser, goes next. He is now a peer, and a member of the committee.He says the deputy national security adviser, Matthew Collins, thought there was enough evidence for the case to go ahead. But the CPS did not agree. Who was right?In 2017, the Law Commission flagged that the term enemy [in the legislation] was deeply problematic and it would give rise to difficulties in future prosecutions.And I think what has played out, during this prosecution exemplifies and highlights the difficulties with that. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago SIMON LAMBERT: Renters in England have been given the biggest increase in their rights in a generation

The Renters' Rights Bill has become law. And that means that there are tough new restrictions on how tenants can be evicted and what landlords must do for them.

Politics

4 w. ago Six things every new tenant should do as Renters’ Rights Bill becomes law

The new legislation is intended to improve the experience of private renting in England

Society

4 w. ago Awaab’s law seeks to change the rules around renters, landlords and mould

Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old child, died in 2020 after prolonged exposure to mould in his social housing association home. The inquest into his death found that, despite repeated reports by his parents about the property’s uninhabitable conditions, their concerns were dismissed and the housing association failed to take sufficient action.

Society