Justice Belfast style

LAW IN ACTION BBC Radio 4's Law In Action Tuesday 25 March 1600 GMT On Radio 4 and online Latest programme

Victims of crime in Nationalist areas of Northern Ireland are still suspicious of the police and reluctant to report offences.

Instead, many turn to Community Restorative Justice, an organisation which helps resolve disputes and mediate between offenders and victims. There are parallel organisations in Protestant communities.

CRJ has recently established a close working relationship with the police and sees its job as encouraging victims to participate in the formal justice system.

However, critics say that the CRJ has close contacts with former paramilitaries and that it effectively coerces local people to cooperate.

Law In Action's Linda Pressly visits a CRJ office in Belfast's Twinbrook Estate to see how things work on the ground.

Discrimination test case

John Reaney may just have made legal history, by winning the first successful employment case showing discrimination in sexual orientation.

Mr. Reaney is an experienced youth worker for the Church of England, and also openly gay. In 2006 he applied for the post of youth officer in the Hereford Diocese.

After being recommended as the best candidate by an initial selection panel of eight, he was interviewed by the Bishop, the Right Reverend Anthony Priddis, who had the authority to make the final appointment.

The job carries what's called a General Occupational Requirement, in this case of celibacy.

During the interview, the issue of celibacy was discussed. And then Mr. Reaney was turned down.

He took the Hereford Diocesan Board of Finance to an employment tribunal and was awarded £50,000.

We discuss the case with Mr. Reaney, his solicitor Alison Downie and Bishop Priddis.

Whatever happened to libel?

Last week, Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents of the missing four-year-old Madeleine, received an out-of-court settlement of around £500,000 for untrue newspaper allegations.

But this payment is part of an increasingly rare phenomenon.

The days of people like Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Archer who repeatedly took out defamation suits are long gone.

The grounds for bringing such suits have been narrowed, making the chances of massive payouts much smaller.

it is quite worrying the speed and the strength with which this privacy law is coming Ian Hislop

We discuss the issue with libel barristers Matthew Nicklin and Hugh Tomlinson QC, and with the editor of Private Eye, Ian Hislop.

Ian Hislop argues that there is now a much greater risk to freedom of expression from the emerging right of privacy which stems from the European Convention on Human Rights.

If you have thoughts on any of the topics we've covered, or any other legal issues, Law In Action would like to hear from you.

You can contact us by email at [e-mail] or by post at Law In Action, BBC White City, Wood Lane, London W12 7TS or you can call us on 020 8752 5646.

Law In Action was broadcast on Tuesday 25 March 2008 at 1600 GMT on BBC Radio 4.