Kids Law

In this round up episode, we look back at Series 3 in which we discuss how law affects children and young people and why it's important that we all understand how the legal system works. 

We have discussed how laws are involved with:

·      artificial intelligence that can affect how we think and form our views

·      how the NSPCC and ICO work to help keep children safe online

·      how children can be involved in creating laws with children in mind 

·      who advises the government about writing and putting laws into practice 

·      our constitution, what the rule of law is and how juries work

·      the laws that govern consent for medical procedures for children

We would like to say a big thank you to all our Series 3 speakers for explaining all these topics and their work in the legal system.

Written, edited and produced by Lucinda Acland.

If you've got any questions, ideas about a topic or someone to interview, get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!! You can email us at [email protected], contact us through the website: www.kidslaw.info  or through social media: Facebook, X and Instagram @KidsLawInfo 

Please subscribe, rate, and share the podcast with your friends. 
See you soon in the next episode!

How are children protected online and who is responsible for enforcing this?

Alma-Constance and Lucinda talk to Emily Keaney, Deputy Commissioner Regulatory Policy at the Information Commissioner’s Office who tells us:

·      About her role and the work of ICO

·      the impact of the Children’s Code developed to protect children

·      the ICO’s involvement with the the Online Safety Bill 

·      what can be done to stop bullying of children on social media platforms 

·      when is it  safe for a child to have a smartphone

·      how the ICO works with other organisations to help protect children online

 When Emily was 10 years old she liked to play with her friends in the park and wanted to be an actor.

Written, edited and produced by Lucinda Acland

References and Resources

https://ico.org.uk/

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/the-children-s-code-what-is-it/

https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/children-and-the-gdpr-1-0.pdf

https://www.childnet.com/help-and-advice/parents-and-carers

If you've got any questions, ideas about a topic or someone to interview, get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!! You can email us at [email protected], contact us through the website: www.kidslaw.info  or through social media: Facebook, X and Instagram @KidsLawInfo 

Please subscribe, rate, and share the podcast with your friends. 
See you soon in the next episode!

What does an MP do when they are in government and in opposition and what is  the role of law in politics.?

In this episode Lucinda and Alma-Constance talk to Alma’s local MP, Karen Buck a member of the Labour Party who has been a politician for over 25 years and was part of the Labour government, working at the Department for Transport. 

Karen tells us: 

·      About her role in making laws in Parliament.

·      What it was like when she was a government minister

·      What opposition MPs do 

·      How MPs work together in commitees

·      How she helps people in her constituency 

·      Whether the voting age should be changed from 18 to 16 across the United Kingdom 

When Karen was 10 years old she loved reading and listening to pop music!

Written, edited and produced by Lucinda Acland

References and Resources  

Labour MP Westminster North. Shadow DWP Minister. 

If you live in her constituency  raise issues via email at [email protected]

Twitter @KarenPBuckMP

https://www.karenbuck.org.uk

 All-Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid

APPG for Street Children 

If you've got any questions, ideas about a topic or someone to interview, get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!! You can email us at [email protected], contact us through the website: www.kidslaw.info  or through social media: Facebook, X and Instagram @KidsLawInfo 

Please subscribe, rate, and share the podcast with your friends. 
See you soon in the next episode!

MPs vote to create or amend new laws in Parliament but how do they know who gives the government legal advice about the laws it wants to introduce, how they're written and then put into operation. 
Alma- Constance and Lucinda ask Susanna McGibbon, the government's most senior legal official in the civil service and permanent secretary of the government legal department, which provides the full range of legal services to government departments and other public bodies. 
Susanna tells us:

·      Why she’s called the Treasury Solicitor

·      How important it is for the rule of law to be upheld by those in power

·      How the different ages that apply for children and young people that affect their rights and responsibilities are decided

·      Whether children’s  views are obtained about new laws 

·      The government legal department involvement in the Online Safety Bill 

·      That its important that  the government legal department reflects the diversity of people in the UK

Susanna says that when she was 10 years old, she enjoyed playing sport being outside with lots of friends and loved reading and writing.

Written, edited and produced by Lucinda Acland 

References and Resources

@SusannaMcGibbon

@PermsecGLD

@GovernmentLegal

https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/treasury-solicitor-susanna-mcgibbon

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/treasury-solicitor-s-department/about

https://www.supremecourt.uk/docs/separation-of-powers-worksheets-for-teachers.pdf

At what age? 

Youth Parliament

If you've got any questions, ideas about a topic or someone to interview, get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!! You can email us at [email protected], contact us through the website: www.kidslaw.info  or through social media: Facebook, X and Instagram @KidsLawInfo 

Please subscribe, rate, and share the podcast with your friends. 
See you soon in the next episode!

Why has Scotland given children the strongest rights in the UK?  
Alma- Constance and Lucinda ask Bruce Adamson, the Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland. 
He tells us:

·      How he works with his team to promote and safeguard the rights of everyone in Scotland up to the age of 18.

·      About the three laws he wanted to change to raise the age of criminal responsibility, stop the physical punishment of children and how he brought the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scottish law. 

·      How he works with children’s panels who asked him to work on poverty, mental health and climate change.

·      How children can become a human rights defenders.

 Bruce says that when he was 10 years old, he was living on a farm in New Zealand and loved sports. He was inspired by his mother who worked as a mental health nurse to help her community and when he was older, he became a lawyer and a human rights advocate.

Written, edited and produced by Lucinda Acland

 References and Resources

 Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland @CYPCS
@bruce_adamson

https://www.cypcs.org.uk

https://www.cypcs.org.uk/rights/uncrc/

https://www.cypcs.org.uk/positions/age-of-criminal-responsibility/

If you've got any questions, ideas about a topic or someone to interview, get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!! You can email us at [email protected], contact us through the website: www.kidslaw.info  or through social media: Facebook, X and Instagram @KidsLawInfo 

Please subscribe, rate, and share the podcast with your friends. 
See you soon in the next episode!

It sounds right that the law should be applied equally to everyone – but what does this mean and what does it need to work properly? Alma- Constance and Lucinda ask Abiodun Michael Olatokun, trustee at the Law for Life Organization, past head of public and youth engagement, diversity officer and research leader for the citizen and rule of law at the Bingham Center and who is currently undertaking traineeship at Matrix Chambers to be a barrister. 

He tells us:

·      what the rule of law means 

·      why it needs access to justice, fair courts, and an independent judiciary

·      the connection with human rights and international rule of law

·      who is responsible for upholding the rule of law 

·      How the rule of law can be improved

Abiodun says that when he was 10 years old, he loved reading, was really fascinated by the idea of different worlds and why people in power make the decisions that they do.

Written, edited and produced by Lucinda Acland 

References and Resources

@ab1odun
https://abiodunolatokun.com/
@LfL_Advicenow
https://publiclawproject.org.uk
@BinghamCentre 
https://binghamcentre.biicl.org/projects/citizenship-and-the-rule-of-law-massive-open-online-course-mooc
https://www.citizensuk.org/about-us/
https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-youth-foundation/council-of-europe-publications

If you've got any questions, ideas about a topic or someone to interview, get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!! You can email us at [email protected], contact us through the website: www.kidslaw.info  or through social media: Facebook, X and Instagram @KidsLawInfo 

Please subscribe, rate, and share the podcast with your friends. 
See you soon in the next episode!

Why we have juries and are they a good thing? 
Each year about 200,000 people undertake jury service, and they play a vital role in deciding the facts and evidence in trials and inquests. Recently, Lucinda was a juror and Alma-Constance asks about her experience and we talk to Professor Leslie Thomas KC about why it is so important for ordinary people to be involved in trials and inquests to ensure fairness, transparency, and trust in our legal system.
Leslie tells us:

·      what a jury means and the cases they are involved with

·      how jurors are chosen and the role they play in the legal process

·      what happens if they can’t agree on a verdict

·      whether we can trust ordinary people to make the right decisions

 Leslie says that when he was 10 years old, he had a huge imagination and wanted to be an adventurer going to exotic places and exploring the world. He sees his role as a barrister to pursue justice and help the marginalised and voiceless.

Written, edited and produced by Lucinda Acland

References and Resources

@_lesliethomas

Garden Court Chambers

Do Right and Fear No One (Simon & Schuster) Professor Leslie Thomas KC

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/juries

http://www.gov.uk/jury-service                                                                                 

If you've got any questions, ideas about a topic or someone to interview, get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!! You can email us at [email protected], contact us through the website: www.kidslaw.info  or through social media: Facebook, X and Instagram @KidsLawInfo 

Please subscribe, rate, and share the podcast with your friends. 
See you soon in the next episode!

We must obey the law whether we know about it or not!  
In this episode, Alma-Constance and Lucinda ask Dr. Mari Takayanagi, historian, author, and the senior Parliamentary Archivist - part of a team which manages the more than 4 million historic records going back more than 500 years at the House of Commons and the House of Lords. 

Mari tells us:

·      About the Magna Carta and the oldest Act and how they both mention children 

·      Why Acts were written on animal skins 

·      Why we need to know about laws created long ago

·      How making laws has changed over the centuries

·      How people find out about the current laws

Mari says that when she was 10 years old she loved being in the library and reading books. Her favourite historical object is the suffragette banner unfurled in the House of Commons in 1908 as part of the campaign for votes for women. 

Alma-Constance and Lucinda would love to hear from you!
Written, edited and produced by Lucinda Acland

References and Resources

https://archives.parliament.uk

Virtual Tour of Parliamentary Archive  (Suffragette banner at 28:07 minutes)

https://learning.parliament.uk/en/

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/

Necessary Women: The Untold Story of Parliament’s Working Women by  Dr Elizabeth Hallam Smith and Dr Mari Takayanagi

If you've got any questions, ideas about a topic or someone to interview, get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!! You can email us at [email protected], contact us through the website: www.kidslaw.info  or through social media: Facebook, X and Instagram @KidsLawInfo 

Please subscribe, rate, and share the podcast with your friends. 
See you soon in the next episode!

In this episode, Alma-Constance and Lucinda ask about when children can make decisions about medical treatment and why sometimes a court is involved. They talk to Imogen Goold, Professor of Medical Law at St Anne's College Oxford university and Gresham visiting professor, as she is an expert in the area of how doctors and parents talk to children about illness, their rights, and responsibilities and how the courts become involved in these decisions.

 Imogen tells us

·      who makes the decisions about children’s medical treatment at different ages

·      what happens if the parents disagree with doctors

·      what happens if a young person disagrees with their parents about medical treatment plans

·      And how judges make their decisions when asked to decide about this issue 

 Imogen says that when she was 10 years old she really liked reading books. and thought she wanted to be a doctor as she loved sciences. She also loved baking and entered the Great British Bake Off and met Mary Berry who liked her scones!

Written, edited and produced by Lucinda Acland

References and Resources

@ImogenGoold

https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/people/imogen-goold

https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-11-02-professor-imogen-goold-gives-gresham-college-lecture-children-and-consent-medical

Children and young people- Consent to treatment

Operation Ouch

If you've got any questions, ideas about a topic or someone to interview, get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!! You can email us at [email protected], contact us through the website: www.kidslaw.info  or through social media: Facebook, X and Instagram @KidsLawInfo 

Please subscribe, rate, and share the podcast with your friends. 
See you soon in the next episode!

How does our the constitution work to controls those with power over citizens and make sure governments act properly? Alma-Constance and Lucinda  talk to leading human rights barrister, Adam Wagner of Doughty Street Chambers who he has written a new book called ‘Emergency State’ which looks at the way that lockdown laws during the pandemic were made and the bigger picture of why the way laws are made and enforced is such an important topic to understand. 

He tells us

·      Why countries have a constitution and how it controls the government from having too much power

·      The type of constitution we have in the United Kingdom and whether it would be better to have a written one

·      Why the law making process was different during the pandemic and the problems that caused

·      How people can challenge decisions made by government and whether legal challenges are an effective way to help people 

Adam tells Alma-Constance that when he was 10 years old, he wanted to be an astronaut, and why he became a human rights lawyer and his daughter tells us what she thinks of having a daddy as a lawyer who appears on the television and radio!

Written, edited and produced by Lucinda Acland.

References and Resources

@adamwagner1

Emergency State

UK Human Rights Blog,

Adam set up and hosts the Better Human Podcast.

 EachOther http://www.eachother.org.uk

If you've got any questions, ideas about a topic or someone to interview, get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!! You can email us at [email protected], contact us through the website: www.kidslaw.info  or through social media: Facebook, X and Instagram @KidsLawInfo 

Please subscribe, rate, and share the podcast with your friends. 
See you soon in the next episode!