Edited by Christof Heyns

As in recent issues of our Journal, in this tenth edition we highlight one theme, to which we dedicate five of nine total articles. This theme refers to the plight of the millions of migrants and refugees who find themselves in dire situations in many countries around the world. The article by Katharine Derderian and Liesbeth Schockaert of Médecins sans Frontières realistically portrays the terrible human tragedy of refugees and, from the point of view of human rights, discusses the concept of refugee, according to the criteria of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), under who- se guidance and with whose generous support we were able to organize this edition. The UNHCR criteria and the foundations of the protection system for refugees are explained in the article by Juan Carlos Murillo.

Human Rights Univeristy Network, Year 6 • Number 10 June 2009, 204p.

Edited by Laura Hilly & Richard Martin

Access to justice is the cornerstone of any fair and equitable legal system. As Sir Bob Hepple in his post ‘The Equality Agenda in 2015’ contained in Chapter 11 of this anthology (p 210) emphasises: “This year marks the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, so it is not inappropriate to recall clause 40 (still on the statute book), which states: “To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice.”” But writing on the second anniversary of the introduction of sweeping cuts to civil legal aid by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (‘LAPOS’), in the wake of debilitating fee hikes in UK employment tribunals and an ongoing diminution of criminal legal aid, it is reasonable to ask what price are we all now paying for these ‘reforms’ of access to justice in England and Wales? While some of the proposed reforms highlighted in this chapter ultimately failed to make it onto the statute books (for example, the proposed presumptive cost orders to burden amicus interveners: see Daniel McCredden ‘Presumptive Cost Orders: A Threat to Public Interest Interventions’ p 17) most of them succeeded in being enacted. And with the re-election of the Conservative Party to Government in May 2015, many of these cuts are here to stay.

Oxford Human RIghts Hub, 2015,384