NILS United Kingdom Law Review: 2019 Volume 1: NILS United Kingdom Law Review, #2

By NILS

NILS UK Law Review is one of the first student-led national law journals aimed at every level of legal study and practice in the UK. NILS UK Law Review was founded in furtherance of a primary aim of NILS International: to contribute to legal education internationally. NILS International is the world's fastest-growing law students' association, with over 5,000 members in 26 countries across 6 continents. This issue contains the following articles:

- Foreword by Yoriko Otomo
- Letter from the Editor by Mohammed Subhan Hussain
- Regulating cryptocurrencies: opportunities, threats and to what extent does the FATF guidance capture risk without stifling innovation? by Huw Thomas
- Brexit: A Catalyst for Devolved Regional Change in the United Kingdom by Gordana Balać
- 'Great Misprision, and No Murder': Reforming the Offence of Child Destruction by Bethane Harland

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sulis Academic
• Release date: Apr 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9798215171370

Book preview

cover-image, NILS UK LAW REVIEW

NILS UK LAW REVIEW

Volume 2, Issue 1



NILS UK Law Review Logo.jpgSulis Academic Press logo (small for ebooks).jpg

An imprint of Sulis International Press

Los Angeles | London

The NILS UK Law Review is one of the first student-led national law journals aimed at every level of legal study and practice in the UK. The NILS UK Law Review was founded in furtherance of a primary aim of NILS International: to contribute to legal education internationally.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations for reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher. Email the Editor-in-Chief for more information.

The views and opinions expressed in this volume are those of each author and do not necessarily reflect the position of NILS International or the NILS UK Law Review Editorial Board. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information contained in this journal, the Editors have no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or inconsistencies.

The NILS UK Law Review uses the Fourth Edition of Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA).

Cover design by Sabrin Fetih

© 2019 NILS UK Law Review. All rights reserved.

HONORARY BOARD

The Right Hon Lord Hope of Craighead KT PC FRSE

Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart

Lord Pannick QC

Professor Conor Gearty

The Right Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP

Professor Nicola Lacey

The Right Hon Lady Justice Gloster DBE PC

Professor Gerry Simpson

The Right Hon Lord Dyson PC

Dr Tatiana Cutts

Professor Thomas Poole

BOARD OF EDITORS

Editor in Chief

Mohammed Subhan Hussain

(BPP Law School)

Senior Editor

Jessica Akinboyewa

(University of Brighton)

Senior Editor

William Wong

(London School of Economics & Political Science)

Senior Editor

Andre Sinanan

(University of Kent)

Senior Editor

Ebunlomo Azeez

(University of Oxford)

Associate Editors

Sana Shah

(University of Sheffield)

Claudie Cheng

(University of York)

Emily Chong

(Cardiff University)

Melissa Morton

(University of Sheffield)

Low Win Li

(BPP Law School)

Maciko Audrey Chan

(University of Leeds)

Burcu Yasar

(King’s College London)

Idil Kaner

(King’s College London)

Design and Promotions Editor

Holly Fergusson

(BPP Law School)

Letter from the Editor

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the second issue of the NILS UK Law Review – a national, student-led journal dedicated to the practice and study of the law at all levels, and one of the first of its kind in the UK.

NILS International is the fastest developing association for legal scholars, totalling over 5,000 members from 26 countries, spread across six continents. NILS UK Law Review is an offshoot of NILS International, and aims to support their primary goal of making meaningful contributions to the international legal education system.

As the UK chapter of NILS International, we are committed to becoming a representative voice for student-led legal study. After noting the significant increase in the number of student-run and edited legal journals from UK institutions, we perceived the need for a publication that brought together the finest literary content from students across all UK universities, achieving a reach unachievable by a single school. While this is a daring, and potentially challenging move, we truly believe it is vital for academic growth.

Our Editorial Board, made up of a range of students at various stages of their studies, has undertaken the mammoth task of sifting through many exceptional submissions to locate the finest ones for this second issue. We are incredibly proud of the three articles selected for publication.

Huw Thomas from the University of Cardiff opens this issue with a notable piece documenting the development of the current cryptocurrency ecosystem. King’s College London student Gordana Balać follows with a thought-provoking discussion on the role of the Brexit referendum in exacerbating cultural tensions and reinvigorating national pride. We close with a harrowing examination from Bethane Harland of the University of Bristol on how the impact of the devastating criminal act of child destruction is not appropriately covered by current UK laws.

We wish to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Sulis Academic Press, particularly Dr Markus McDowell, for publishing this issue free of charge, as well as our exceptional foreword writer Dr Yoriko Otomo (Research Associate at SOAS, University of London). Special thanks are also due to our official patrons, Allen & Jain, who have offered exceptional sponsorship from day one. Finally, to the Honorary Board, we extend our deep appreciation to you for your unwavering support for this journal from its inception. This issue would not have been possible without all of you.

To our Associate Editors, who, in spite of their heavy academic schedule, have been on hand to offer editorial support, we thank you. Additional thanks go to each and every author who submitted content for our consideration – we appreciate your confidence in our work. To the university careers services and student law associations who continue to share our call for submissions, we appreciate your support. On a personal note, to Andre, Jessica, Ebun and William, I would like to express my gratitude for your boundless creative energy; it has been a pleasure and an honour to work alongside all of you.

When work began on this second issue, there was an underlying concern that we would not be able to exceed the heights reached by the inaugural edition or attract a more diverse scholarly readership. With the endless work and support of the Editorial Board, I am truly humbled to see that these concerns were unfounded. As such, it is with unbridled hope we leave you with this issue, highly anticipating future Boards taking NILS UK Law Review from strength to strength.

Mohammed Subhan Hussain

Editor-in-Chief 2018/9

NILS UK Law Review Editorial Board

Foreword

The second issue of this student-led journal is as riveting as the first. What a pleasure it is to encounter such topical and engaging articles as these. Indeed, they are as varied as those in the first issue, examining the regulation of cryptocurrency; British politics post-Brexit, and the killing of near-birth foetuses respectively. These articles cover different fields of law, in domestic, national and international jurisdictions. They concern new laws (cryptocurrency) and old (child destruction). Their proposed reforms are both detailed (amending liability thresholds) and wholesale (devolution). Nonetheless, these articles are united in their concern for social responsibility, and this makes for gripping reading.

If we read with this concern firmly in mind, shared themes do in fact appear. There is law’s anxiety over how to regulate the immaterial (blockchain) and the invisible (unborn children). There is the question of what constitutes the ‘real’ – the economies of online multiplayer games? political identity based on cultural histories? the personhood of foetuses? And there is the effect of globalisation on the fundamental structures of economy and politics. Law, here, emerges as a midwife to the risk inherent in these financial, political and physical processes – risk that is caused by simple human frailty: greed, violence, forgetfulness, and fear.

None of the questions raised in these articles have easy answers, for they touch our deepest psychosocial traits. The human capacity to live in a metaphysical fantasy (of e.g. monetary value, territorial jurisdiction, and personhood) both defines us and destroys us. It is a tall order to ask such a blunt instrument as law to deal with the drama – the passion and the sorrow – of identity, where such identity (a foetus, a Welsh person in the UK) is contiguous and symbiotic with its others. And yet, ask we must. For financial contracts can now be executed instantaneously. Brexit has rumbled Britain’s historical fault-lines. Babies continue to be made, carried, and born.

In the global age it falls on law, then, to govern. But how, and by whom? The first article argues for jurisdictional co-ordination in the creation of a cryptocurrency regime. It introduces regulators as specialist economic bodies, governments, and exchange platforms themselves. The second article argues for the reintroduction of regional assemblies and notes the preferences of historic communities across England (in e.g. Yorkshire, Devon) as well as the Scottish and Welsh parliaments as potential decision-making powers. The third article argues for the criminalisation of foetal death during birth caused by recklessness (exempting the mothers). It cites the suffering of mothers whose near-birth babies have been killed by others, who have not had recognition of that loss.

In dark times, this journal is an encouragement to both academics and students. It shows us the value of reading and writing long form. It shows us the value of non-profit and independent work. And above all it shows us the value of fighting for laws and regimes that protect the vulnerable. It is an openness to the wider horizon that differentiates the young from the rest, and these articles demonstrate that with creativity and care.

Dr. Yoriko Otomo

Research Associate

SOAS, University of London

March 2019

Brexit: A Catalyst for Devolved Regional Change in the United Kingdom

Gordana Balać

¹

Abstract: This article explores the potential for the re-emergence of devolved regional assemblies in England as the first stage in the longer process of federalisation in the United Kingdom. It looks at the political context of the Brexit referendum as creating an identity gap in which cultural struggles and tensions were ignited across the UK, reinvigorating underlying themes of national pride and cultural history. It views the UK’s existing devolution settlements as unsatisfactory and suggests a federal model as a more suitable alternative to remedy the inevitable outcome of further separation across the four nations of the United Kingdom.

Future federalisation is necessary to adequately recognise each nation’s different cultural demands and economic needs and to accommodate their asymmetrical development as devolved nations. This is important not only in solving the ‘English Question’, but also in counterbalancing England’s populational and dimensional dominance over the other nations within the UK.

1. Scope and introduction.

This article will examine the political impact of the Brexit phenomenon on the UK’s constituent nations and will investigate whether this has brought about the re-emergence of devolved regional assemblies. I will argue that the political tensions which arose after the Brexit vote indicate that further separation of the UK’s constituent nations is more likely. In light of this conclusion, I intend to primarily focus on what this means for England (as the only non-devolved body within the UK²) and how a rejuvenated form of regional assemblies is the next logical step for UK devolution in the wake of what I believe to be an emerging and inevitable process of UK federalism.

This article will focus primarily on how political unrest in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum,