David Miers – författare

Three quarters of the British population gamble (mainly on the National Lottery), and they generate around 46 billion pounds a year. This volume sets recent developments in the regulation and deregulation of its three primary forms - betting, gaming, and lotteries - against an account of their social and legal history. Many of the concerns that excite controversy today are little different from those with which the Home Office grappled for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Based upon Home Office files and contemporary accounts, this book begins by evaluating how the law was used to control and suppress popular gambling. Miers shows how and why prohibition gave way to the recognition that regulation offered a more effective method of controlling a social pastime that, by the mid-twentieth century, had become a feature of everyday life. Concerns over gambling have recently resurfaced, as a result of Government proposals to replace the existing strict controls with a regulatory regime that will give greater scope for licensees to adopt more competitive practices. Like the introduction of the National Lottery in 1994, these proposals represent a marked departure from the traditional response: to permit but not to stimulate commercial gambling. The potential for expansion in opportunities to gamble raises concerns about the accessibility of gambling to children and the possibility of increased numbers of problem gamblers. Miers examines the implementation and impact of the present law governing gaming and the National Lottery in terms of regulation and the enforcement of regulatory regimes. He focusses on how these regimes regulate the probity of the supplier, the supply of gambling opportunities, the nature of the transaction, and the player's participation. The book concludes with an evaluation of the Gambling Bill, a draft of which was published in 2003 aiming to give effect to the Government's proposals.

The 2012 Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS) deals with some 33,000 applications for compensation each year. It has, since 1964, been one of the principal means by which the state aims to meet victims' expectations following an offence of violence, but it also displays a clear doctrinal effort to differentiate 'deserving' from 'undeserving' victims. Over much of the same period criminal courts and agencies have enjoyed powers to order offenders to pay compensation to their victims, most recently as an element of restorative justice.Split into two parts, Criminal Injuries Compensation is an authoritative analysis of the statutory provisions governing these various remedies. Part One, State Compensation, analyses the Scheme's defining provisions: what constitutes 'a criminal injury', what persons and injuries may be compensated, the rules governing the victim's own conduct and character, the assessment of the award, and the procedures governing applications, appeals and judicial review. Part Two, Offender Compensation, analyses the conditions under which a criminal court may make a compensation order as an element of its sentencing decision, concluding with the potential of restorative justice to deliver offender compensation to victims. The book also touches on the wider political and criminal justice context of compensation.Written and edited by an expert academic and practitioner team, Criminal Injuries Compensation is an essential text for all those with an interest in understanding the statutory, judicial and administrative rules that govern state and offender payment of compensation to victims of violent crime.

New to English law? Need to know how rules are made, interpreted and applied? This popular and well-established textbook will show you how. It simplifies legal method by combining examples with an account of rules in general: the who, what, why and how of interpretation. Starting with standpoint and context, it identifies factors that give rise to doubts about the interpretation of a rule and recommends a systematic approach to analysing those factors. Questions and exercises integrated in the text and on the accompanying website will help you to develop skills in reading, interpreting and arguing about legal and other rules. The text is fully updated on developments in the legislative process and the judicial interpretation of statutes and precedent. It includes a new chapter on 'The European Dimension' reflecting the changes brought about by the Human Rights Act 1998.