A look back at Series 4

In this episode, Alma-Constance and Lucinda look back at Series 4 where they've been talking to people working in the legal system who explain how laws affect us in everyday life, particularly for children and young people. The 12 episodes cover:

• the new Online Safety Act,
• alternative ways to resolve disputes, and why the Old Bailey is so famous, 
• how the law affects children when someone dies and if the king has to obey the law,
• the role of ethics in law, how human rights can be used to protect children and the difference between human rights and civil liberties,
• why law centres were set up and how they support people in the community,
• how to practice law without going to university; and 
• the most important IP right that affects young people. 

Written, edited and produced by Lucinda Acland

We would like to say a big thank you to all our Series 4 speakers for supporting our project, and especially you, our listeners. 

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 kidslaw@spark21.org, contact us through the website: www.kidslaw.info or through social media: Facebook, X and Instagram @KidsLawInfo

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See you soon in the next episode!

Transcript

Looking back at series 4

Alma Hello, and welcome to the last episode of the fourth series of our Kids Law Podcast. My name is Alma-Constance, and since 2021 my friend Lucinda Acland and I, have been talking to people working in the legal system, to explain what they do and how laws affect us all in everyday life, particularly children and young people.
Lucinda Hello, Lucinda here. We’re going to look back at the 12 episodes of series 4 which reached our listeners in an amazing 53 countries!
Alma  Including one on-stage interview with Prof. Richard Susskind on all things AI – so artificial Intelligence. He told us that AI is evolving incredibly fast, with new and mind-blowing technology: there are self-driving cars, robots, and Chat GPT. He also explained that AI is something that can heavily affect us as children, with a lot of adult and inappropriate content being aimed at young kids, but also a lot of privacy breaches when it comes to collecting data from children. These are just a few concerns, and there may be many more in the future: for example  AI will replace a lot of jobs, so we all need to be familiar with AI and have skills to prepare for it.In  episode 9 with Ofcom's online safety director  Jess Smith she explained how the new Online Safety Act aims to keep young people safe online and it  was very good to hear how they involved children to discuss their online experiences.
Lucinda  Our top episode was number 7 ‘ called do you have to go to court to resolve disputes” Frederick Way told us that going to court can be lengthy, expensive and sometimes dissatisfied with the outcome. He told us about alternative ways to resolve disputes and how people can be encouraged to work together to solve problems. On the other hand, when crimes have been committed, a different process is used. In serious crimes they will end up in court and  episode 11 Judge Anuja Dir told us in Why is the Old Bailey the most famous criminal court in England and Wales and what happens when children and young people are involved in the criminal justice system. I thought it was really interesting to hear how she felt moving from being a barrister to a judge.What about you Alma, anything stand out/learnt or for you?   
Alma  I thought it was really good that Melinda Giles was able to tell us about a death in her own family in such a reassuring way in episode 10, How does the law impact children when someone dies. She even told us that one of her clients kept her will behind a bath panel!The country had to deal with death too when Queen Elizabeth II died, and as part of the Constitution, the Monarchy - the Crown, was passed automatically to her son King Charles III. In episode 2, the English legal historian Sir John Baker talked about the powers the Crown has these days and what would happen if the King broke the law. These days, the King has very few powers and the King's role has changed drastically in the last century.
Lucinda  The question about behaving properly as a member of the legal profession was discussed by Richard Moorhead inepisode 6 ‘What is the role of ethics in law”, and that it is fundamental to the legal system that lawyers are trained to be ethical and this enables the public to trust the legal system. This was one of very popular episodes too, and later in episode 12, we spoke to barrister Fiona Page in our programme ‘All about Inquiries’, who was representing the sub postmasters in the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. She told us that this involved unethical behaviour by people involved including legal representatives, and how one of the roles of an Inquiry is to hold organisations and individuals to account for their actions.
Alma In our first  Episode  of series 4, we discussed a related issue of how we treat other people - the topic of human rights. The barrister, Sultana Tafadar KC, and her 11year old daughter Safiyah talked about How human rights can be used to protect children and promote equality through education, advocacy and litigation. Shami Chakrabarti started her career as a human rights lawyer too and in Episode 3 she discussed the impact of the law, the European Convention on Human Rights that the UK signed which covers both human rights and civil liberties, and it is part of our law.
Lucinda  My favourite episode was Episode 4 with Frank Kiangala, Director and Immigration Solicitor at North Kensington Law Centre – where he discussed why law centres were set up; and how they continue to support people in the community to access their legal rights. In “How law centres tackle the causes of poverty and inequality in our communities’  He tells us about the areas of social welfare law his organisation covers and the challenges his  clients and the communities face in the area, such as the Grenfell fire and the Windrush scandal.
But tell me Alma, what were your favourite bits from series 4…
Alma I also enjoyed hearing  Emma Davies, in Episode 5 telling us ‘How to practice law without going to university’ about the flexible studying options and he different schemes to train as a paralegal, legal executive or apprentice for those who want to specialise in a particular area  of law. I also  thought it was very interesting in Episode 8 with His Honour Judge Richard Hacon, telling us about  ‘How can laws protect creative works’ , as many young people create content online and he told us that for young people, probably the most important IP right is copyright,t for example if you wrote a song – it has an automatic enforceable right, so that if someone else copies your work you can stop them or get them to pay your royalty money.
Lucinda I think that topic brings us back to the laws surrounding online use that we had in episode 1, and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about online developments in Series 5.  We’ve got episodes about whether nature can have legal rights and what are the laws in space!
We’d like to say a big thank you to all our guest speakers for their time and supporting our project. 
Alma
We’d like to say a big thank you to all our listeners for another fantastic year - sharing our passion to #TeachKidsLaw. So if you have any questions or hear stories in the news involving laws that you’d like us discuss and explain, let us know through our social media accounts @kidslawinfo
If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, make sure to like, download, and share with your friends!  See you in Series 5!

Both Bye!                                                                  END