My column in today's Law Society Gazette summarises a paper I delivered in New York last week about the British experience of "lawfare" — the use of law as a weapon of war. 

A High Court ruling today in favour of a Catholic adoption agency came in for immediate and intemperate criticism from campaign groups who are not likely to have read the 30-page judgment delivered by Mr Justice Briggs. All that the judge did was to give Catholic Care a second chance to persuade the Charity Commission that the work it has been doing for many years remains lawful.

One for the tabloids, this: on Thursday, the European Court of Justice will rule on a VAT appeal by the owner of a sex shop in Bruges.

This week — not for the first time — the threat of international terrorism is presenting our judges with the most difficult questions they have to confront.

Britain was "strongly urged" today to allow prisoners to vote at the general election. Officials at the Council of Europe "reiterated their serious concern" that the government's failure to implement a judgment by the European Court of Human Rights would lead to large numbers of claims by disenfranchised prisoners.