Angus McCullough QC appeared for Abu Qatada as his Special Advocate in the domestic proceedings before SIAC, the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords. He is not the author of this post. ‘Human Rights Act to blame!’ is a frequent refrain in the media, as well reported on this blog. Often, though, the outcome [...]
Archive for the ‘Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment’ Category
Indefinite detention: not very British
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Criminal, European, Immigration/Extradition, In the news, Prisons, Terrorism, tagged abu qatada on February 8, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Extradition of murder accused to US not breach of human rights
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Case law, Criminal, Immigration/Extradition, International, Prisons, tagged Harkins and Edwards on January 19, 2012 | 1 Comment »
HARKINS AND EDWARDS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM – 9146/07 [2012] ECHR 45 – Read judgment The European Court of Human Rights has found that there would be no breach of Article 3 ECHR (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment) in extraditing two men accused of murder to the US. The men argued that they face the death [...]
Gibson rendition and torture inquiry has been scrapped
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, In the news, Inquests and Inquiries, Politics / Public Order, Technology, tagged Ken Clarke, police investigations on January 18, 2012 | 2 Comments »
1 Crown Office Row’s Philippa Whipple QC was leading counsel to the Gibson Inquiry. She is not the writer of this post The Justice Secretary has told Parliament that the Gibson Inquiry tasked with considering whether Britain was “implicated in the improper treatment of detainees, held by other countries, that may have occurred in the [...]
Strasbourg: L’enfant terrible
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, European, In the news, Media, tagged abu qatada, European Court of Human Rights on January 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »
A bit like news of a wayward celebrity, judgments from the European Court of Human Rights are now awaited with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. Whatever are those crazy unelected judges going to do next? Will this be the latest “Judgment day” for the enfant terrible of Strasbourg? Yesterday the court released three judgments [...]
Youth restraint challenge rejected by High Court
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Case summaries, Children, In the news, Poor reporting, Prisons, tagged Access to justice, Standing on January 16, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) v Secretary of State for Justice and G4S Care and Justice Services (UK) Ltd and Serco plc [2012] EWHC 8 (Admin) – read judgment Although certain restraining measures had been taken unlawfully against young people in secure training centres for a number of years, the court had no jurisdiction [...]
The ECJ on Aslyum, Greece; the UK Protocol on the EU Charter – Dr Cian Murphy
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Case comments, European, Immigration/Extradition, tagged asylum law, asylum seekers, EU Charter, refugee applications on December 28, 2011 | Comments Off
Last Wednesday, the European Court of Justice issued a flurry of judgments just before the Christmas break. Indeed, there were so many interesting and important decisions amongst the twenty or so handed down that seems foolish to consider any of them the ‘most important’. Nonetheless the judgment in NS and Others v SSHD (C-411/10) must be a contender [...]
Investigation team “lacks necessary independence” for MOD ill-treatment allegations
Posted in Art. 2 | Right to life, Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Case summaries, Inquests and Inquiries, Politics / Public Order, Technology on November 23, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Ali Zaki Mousa v Secretary of State for Defence & Anr [2011] EWCA Civ 133 - read judgment Philip Havers QC of 1 Crown Office Row represented the respondent secretary of state in this case. He is not the author of this post. The Court of Appeal has ruled that the Iraq Historic Allegations [...]
Julian Assange loses High Court appeal against extradition
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case summaries, Immigration/Extradition, tagged Julian Assange on November 2, 2011 | 7 Comments »
Julian Assange -v- Swedish Prosecution Authority – Read judgment / summary Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, has lost his High Court appeal against extradition to Sweden. He lost on all four grounds of appeal. Unless he is granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court under Section 32 of the Extradition Act [...]
Challenge to intelligence services guidance succeeds in part – Shaheen Rahman
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Case summaries, Criminal, International, Terrorism, tagged Equality and Human Rights Commission v Prime Minister & Ors [2011] EWHC 2401 (Admin) -, hooding on October 6, 2011 | Comments Off
Equality and Human Rights Commission v Prime Minister & Ors [2011] EWHC 2401 (Admin) – Read judgment A challenge to published guidance for intelligence officers interviewing detainees overseas has been partially successful. Mr Al Bazzouni and the EHRC argued that the guidance as to what officers should do if they suspect detainees might be subject [...]
Anti-terrorism powers for a rainy day
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 5 | Right to Liberty, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Criminal, In the news, Terrorism, tagged Control orders, TPIM on September 4, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Updated | Next week will mark the 10th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. Despite the intervening decade, the states threatened by terrorism are still puzzling out the right balance between the powers of security services and the rights of suspected terrorists to due process. Although terrorism is now mercifully low on the public [...]
Al-Skeini may open door to more war claims
Posted in Art. 2 | Right to life, Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 5 | Right to Liberty, Article 1 | ECHR jurisdiction, Case comments, European, International, tagged Al Skeini on August 15, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The recent European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment in Al-Skeini will certainly enter the Court’s hall of fame as a landmark judgment for pushing the boundaries of the European Convention on Human Rights’s jurisdiction. While it may take us some time to appreciate the full implications of this judgment, one of its possible consequences is the [...]
Will the Detainee Inquiry be human rights compliant?
Posted in Art. 2 | Right to life, Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, In the news, Inquests and Inquiries, tagged Detainee inquiry on August 8, 2011 | Comments Off
Ten human rights campaign groups and the lawyers for a number of detainees alleging UK involvement in their mistreatment have confirmed that they will be boycotting the impending Detainee Inquiry. We recently posted on the publication of the Terms of Reference and the Protocol for the Detainee Inquiry and set out some of the reaction [...]
After Winterbourne View: the untapped potential of Article 8 – Lucy Series
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, In the news, tagged Winterbourne View on August 1, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Since BBC Panorama revealed shocking abuse of adults with learning disabilities in a private hospital run by Castlebeck Care Ltd, the care sector has engaged in widespread soul searching. Paul Burstow instructed the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to carry out a national audit of all hospital services for adults with learning disabilities. Similar national audits [...]
Detainee Inquiry takes shape, responds to criticisms
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, In the news, Inquests and Inquiries, Terrorism, tagged Detainee inquiry on July 26, 2011 | 4 Comments »
The Terms of Reference and the Protocol for the Government’s impending Detainee Inquiry have recently been published. The Protocol makes clear that the Inquiry is to be granted unfettered access to a broad range of information, but the limitations on the publication of that information have prompted criticism from human rights groups. On 6th July [...]





No deportation for Abu Qatada, but where are we now on torture evidence? – Professor Adam Tomkins
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case comments, Children, European, Terrorism, tagged abu qatada, European Court of Human Rights, immigration appeals on January 19, 2012 | 1 Comment »
OTHMAN (ABU QATADA) v. THE UNITED KINGDOM – 8139/09 [2012] ECHR 56 – Read judgment - updated (7/2/2012): Abu Qatada is expected to be released from Long Lartin maximum security jail within days. the special immigration appeals commission (Siac) ruled on Monday that Qatada should be freed, despite the Home Office saying he continued to pose a [...]
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