Ik ben weer terug vanuit Londen, gistermiddag thuis bij mijn ouders aangekomen...! Toen even twee uurtjes gepit om daarna weer te gaan tennissen. Heerlijk heerlijk wat een dag...misschien dat ik daarom tot 1 uur vanmiddag nog in mijn bed te vinden was. Londen was echt een super stad, we hebben echt van alles gedaan.
Maandagochtend vertrokken we om 7.30 ( en ja dat is s'ochtends) vanuit het moreelse park,en we kwamen rond een uurtje of 4 aan in de wereldstad. Omdat niemand voetbal wou missen gingen we uit eten en daar stond een mega scherm waarop de wedstrijd in detail te volgen was.
Dinsdag was de eerste echte dag, we hebben een legal/illegal walk in Londen gedaan langs de inns of court.
The legal profession in England and Wales is made up of two separate groups - barristers and solicitors. A barrister is a lawyer who has been admitted by one of the four Inns of Court to "plead at the bar" (address the court), after having spent a year in pupilege with a practicing barrister and passing a “bar exam”. A solicitor (though qualified in the law) is, however, rarely allowed “rights of access” to the court and must usually instruct a barrister to present their client’s case to the court for them. The Inns of Court, which date from before the 14th century, were originally eating and lodging places for students of the law. Though there are references throughout history to over 30 different Inns, only four survive.
These are Lincoln’s, Gray’s, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. Each has its own colour: Green for Lincoln’s, black for each Temple (because the knights templar were a religious order) and red for Gray’s. They still offer accommodation and food, however only a few privileged judges and senior barristers have rooms there and these are mainly used only during week days.
The term “being called to the bar” refers to young barristers being allowed to practice: they are only permitted to do so after having eaten 24 dinners in one of the Inns, a tradition dating back centuries. This is because attending the dinners provides a student with an opportunity to mix with qualified colleagues and understand the traditions of “the bar”, such as never shaking hands with a fellow barrister.
Barristers are not supposed to discuss fees directly with the solicitors who instruct them, and the flap at the back of their gowns is supposedly where, in days of old, solicitors used to slip their payments.
Die dag hebben we ook nog een rechtszaak bijgewoond in het royal court of justice! Het was op zich jammer want de verdachte (een man die zijn vrouw had vermoord terwijl ze zwanger was) was niet aanwezig en daarom werd de zitting verplaats naar die dag erna.