Cool tutor
Careers service and the student information desk like to send us invitations to events relevant to the Bar.
Dear all,
On Thursday 23rd April 2009, in Court 1 of the Old Bailey at 6pm, there will be a reconstruction of the famous cross-examination of Oscar Wilde, in his prosecution of the Marquess of Queensberry, by Sir Edward Carson QC. The event, which is for one night only, will be followed by a drinks reception and is in aid of the Sheriffs’ and Recorder’s Fund, which gives small, practical and timely grants to ex-offenders on probation in Greater London.
The part of Oscar Wilde will be played by his grandson, Merlin Holland, and of Carson by Roy Amlot QC.
The words are taken verbatim from the Court transcript of the trial in 1895. The transcript only came to light 9 years ago when the British Library put on an exhibition to commemorate the centenary of Wilde’s death. It provides a fascinating example of the art of cross-examination by a wonderful advocate scrutinising Wilde’s literature and his relationships with younger men.
Tickets for this event are available on a first come first served basis and cost £35 for the well of the court, £25 for the public gallery and £10 for students.
I attach the promotional poster for your convenience.
Please contact Firstname Lastname on 020 XXXX XXXX or firstname.lastname@6kbw.com
Wilde was subject to a criminal trial for his sex life. Because Victorians were weird like that. I'd forgotten what the sentence was, but our best tutor seems to have responded to SID's email almost instantly and he mentions that it was two years' hard labour.
Although Carson was a highly skilled cross-examiner I can't think that this particular cross-examination was a particularly good one; despite the publicity it has enjoyed over the years.
It was divided into two parts.
In the first part Carson cross-examined Wilde about his literary work, hoping, in true conventional Victorian fashion, to show that any reference to male beauty must have a sinister tendency. In this part of the cross-examination Wilde simply ran rings around Carson.
In the second part Carson largely put to Wilde the names of all of the unsavoury young men with whom Wilde had been indiscreetly intimate, in public places, Carson making sure that all of the evidence which his solicitors has found for him, about Wilde's behaviour with these young men, went before the jury. Wilde was compelled to admit the truth of this evidence, particularly as many of the young men were present at court. It was these admissions which undid Wilde's case.
So Carson was beaten in the first part of his examination, and succeeded in the second part of his examination simply by putting to Wilde the evidence his solicitor had assembled (with the help of a disaffected "grass" named Brookfield). No doubt he did what he had to do with great skill, but the success of the cross-examination depended upon the evidence which Carson had at his disposal, rather than upon any great brilliance.
Carson, who was indeed a wonderful cross-examiner, was seen at his brilliant best in the Cadbury libel action, a full treatment of which appears in Richard du Cann's book The Art of the Advocate. His cross examination in that case can indeed be studied with profit by any young advocate, for its selection of topics to be deployed, for the way in which those topics were marshalled, including the order in which they were put, and for the way in which each topic was handled.
The pillorying of Wilde seems to me to have been a rather disgusting exhibition of Victorian hypocrisy at its worst; an exhibition which was exacerbated by the vicious, smug remarks (of a kind which Sigmund Freud would have had no difficulty in diagnosing as expressions of "repression") made by the judge when passing the indefensible sentence which he saw fit to impose. Instead of rounding on the prosecution, and demanding that it justify the public expense of two long criminal trials on a charge of sleeping with a few adult rent boys, he sentenced Wilde to two years imprisonment with hard labour for doing no more than that.
I thank the powers that may be that our more realistic age has rescued Wilde personal and professional reputation from the obscurity into which the Victorians would have cast him, so that we can now all enjoy, with as great a degree of frivolity as me may be able to muster, "the vital Importance of Being Earnest".
Tutor's Name
BVC
Hear hear! And I suppose I shall have to look up "The Art of the Advocate."
Dear all,
On Thursday 23rd April 2009, in Court 1 of the Old Bailey at 6pm, there will be a reconstruction of the famous cross-examination of Oscar Wilde, in his prosecution of the Marquess of Queensberry, by Sir Edward Carson QC. The event, which is for one night only, will be followed by a drinks reception and is in aid of the Sheriffs’ and Recorder’s Fund, which gives small, practical and timely grants to ex-offenders on probation in Greater London.
The part of Oscar Wilde will be played by his grandson, Merlin Holland, and of Carson by Roy Amlot QC.
The words are taken verbatim from the Court transcript of the trial in 1895. The transcript only came to light 9 years ago when the British Library put on an exhibition to commemorate the centenary of Wilde’s death. It provides a fascinating example of the art of cross-examination by a wonderful advocate scrutinising Wilde’s literature and his relationships with younger men.
Tickets for this event are available on a first come first served basis and cost £35 for the well of the court, £25 for the public gallery and £10 for students.
I attach the promotional poster for your convenience.
Please contact Firstname Lastname on 020 XXXX XXXX or firstname.lastname@6kbw.com
Wilde was subject to a criminal trial for his sex life. Because Victorians were weird like that. I'd forgotten what the sentence was, but our best tutor seems to have responded to SID's email almost instantly and he mentions that it was two years' hard labour.
Although Carson was a highly skilled cross-examiner I can't think that this particular cross-examination was a particularly good one; despite the publicity it has enjoyed over the years.
It was divided into two parts.
In the first part Carson cross-examined Wilde about his literary work, hoping, in true conventional Victorian fashion, to show that any reference to male beauty must have a sinister tendency. In this part of the cross-examination Wilde simply ran rings around Carson.
In the second part Carson largely put to Wilde the names of all of the unsavoury young men with whom Wilde had been indiscreetly intimate, in public places, Carson making sure that all of the evidence which his solicitors has found for him, about Wilde's behaviour with these young men, went before the jury. Wilde was compelled to admit the truth of this evidence, particularly as many of the young men were present at court. It was these admissions which undid Wilde's case.
So Carson was beaten in the first part of his examination, and succeeded in the second part of his examination simply by putting to Wilde the evidence his solicitor had assembled (with the help of a disaffected "grass" named Brookfield). No doubt he did what he had to do with great skill, but the success of the cross-examination depended upon the evidence which Carson had at his disposal, rather than upon any great brilliance.
Carson, who was indeed a wonderful cross-examiner, was seen at his brilliant best in the Cadbury libel action, a full treatment of which appears in Richard du Cann's book The Art of the Advocate. His cross examination in that case can indeed be studied with profit by any young advocate, for its selection of topics to be deployed, for the way in which those topics were marshalled, including the order in which they were put, and for the way in which each topic was handled.
The pillorying of Wilde seems to me to have been a rather disgusting exhibition of Victorian hypocrisy at its worst; an exhibition which was exacerbated by the vicious, smug remarks (of a kind which Sigmund Freud would have had no difficulty in diagnosing as expressions of "repression") made by the judge when passing the indefensible sentence which he saw fit to impose. Instead of rounding on the prosecution, and demanding that it justify the public expense of two long criminal trials on a charge of sleeping with a few adult rent boys, he sentenced Wilde to two years imprisonment with hard labour for doing no more than that.
I thank the powers that may be that our more realistic age has rescued Wilde personal and professional reputation from the obscurity into which the Victorians would have cast him, so that we can now all enjoy, with as great a degree of frivolity as me may be able to muster, "the vital Importance of Being Earnest".
Tutor's Name
BVC
Hear hear! And I suppose I shall have to look up "The Art of the Advocate."