Cardiff students present at Joint Enterprise conference

A group of Cardiff law students recently presented at a conference dedicated to Joint Enterprise law.

The students Flore Gustave, Ruth Osibanjo, Maddy Semple, Antonia Wilkinson (LLB) and En Soon (BPTC) travelled to London on 25 March to take part in the conference which was organised by Joint Enterprise – Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA), a grass roots group who campaign for changes in the law on Joint Enterprise.

Joint Enterprise cases usually see more than one person being convicted of a crime. This often means that individuals who are present when a crime is committed can be found guilty of the crime even though they may not have been the person who struck the blow or pulled the trigger.

This year, the School of Law and Politics has been involved in JENGbA’s Joint Enterprise Appeals Project and our students have been looking at the potential for appeal in five different cases. The students have been supervised by Maria Keyse of the School’s Centre for Professional Legal Studies (CPLS) and the project has formed part of the School’s pro bono activities.

The group presented their findings at the conference and also had the opportunity to meet and talk to Gloria Morrison one of the co-founders of JENGbA.

Speaking after the conference Maria Keyse, project supervisor said, “It was wonderful to see all five students stand up and present their findings at the JENGbA conference. I know they were nervous but they all did brilliantly. Joint Enterprise is a such a complicated element of UK law so seeing our students talk about it in such a knowledgeable and informed way is fantastic. They also had the opportunity to talk to family members of prisoners who have been convicted of crimes they insist they did not commit so this really brings home the importance of the work our students carry out with JENGbA in giving hope to those wrongfully convicted.”