It appears that the Government has climbed down, in part, from some of its controversial secret justice proposals. According to the Telegraph, the Justice and Security Bill, which will be published this week, will include a provision whereby judges, not the Government, has the final say on whether a Closed Material Procedure (CMP) is used. [...]
Archive for the ‘Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial’ Category
A secret justice climb down? Perhaps not
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Freedom of Information, In the news, Politics / Public Order, Terrorism on May 21, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Time, time, time, look what’s become of me
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case comments, European, Immigration/Extradition, In the news, Terrorism, tagged abu qatada on May 2, 2012 | 7 Comments »
In law, time can be everything. Every lawyer will have experienced waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat at the realisation that a time limit has been missed. Courts often have the discretion to extend litigation time limits, such as under rule 3.1 of the Civil Procedure Rules, but simple [...]
Abu Qatada and the law of time – Carl Gardner
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, European, Immigration/Extradition, In the news, Terrorism, tagged abu qatada on April 19, 2012 | 34 Comments »
The BBC reported yesterday that there’s “doubt” about the deportation of Abu Qatada, following his arrest on Tuesday and now his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights – which the Home Secretary Theresa May says is out of time. So: is she right? Is the appeal out of time? How has the Home Office [...]
Offshore wind farmer wrong-footed by the Planning Inspector
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case comments, Case law, Environment, In the news on April 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Dudgeon Offshore Wind v. Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government et al, HHJ Waksman QC, hearing 23 March 2012, read judgment Running a hearing can be difficult enough when you are sitting as a judge and are faced with parties in a civil case. At least then you have an agenda set by [...]
Secret evidence proposals – time to reflect
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, In the news, Politics / Public Order, Terrorism, tagged secret evidence on April 11, 2012 |
On 19 October 2011 the Government’s published its proposals to extend closed procedures, as set out in its Justice and Security Green Paper (and covered by the post on this blog). On 1 December 2011 I expressed the following concerns: I am troubled about these proposals, as well as the lack of public debate that they have [...]
BBC interview with terror suspect Barbar Ahmad
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Criminal, In the news, Terrorism on April 6, 2012 | 10 Comments »
I highly recommend Dominic Casciani’s excellent BBC Newsnight piece on Barbar Ahmad, which is currently available on iPlayer (UK only). Ahmad’s case cuts across a number of different rights controversies. The BBC challenged the Ministry of Justice’s initial refusal to allow an interview with the terrorist suspect, who is currently held at a maximum security [...]
All by myself: segregation, prisons and Article 6
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case law, Case summaries, Prisons, tagged Prisoners, prisoners rights, right to a fair trial, segregation on March 30, 2012 |
Bourgass and others v Secretary of State for Justice [2012] EWCA Civ 376 Read decision The ability to interact with other prisoners is a major part of prison life, and not one many prisoners would give up willingly. But there are circumstances where prisoners have to be segregated from the rest of the prison population, [...]
Reasons and evidence in Europe
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case comments, European, In the news, International, Protocol 1 Art. 1 | Peaceful enjoyment of property on March 22, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Cases T-439/10 and T-440/10, Fulmen & Mahmoudian v. Council of the European Union, read judgment Fulmen, as many of you will know, means thunderbolt in Latin. So it must have seemed when this Iranian company had its assets frozen. This case is a good example of how general principles of European law were applied to annul measures [...]
Can UK courts pass judgment on due process in other Convention countries?
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case summaries, Company/Commercial, Damages, European, In the news, Protocol 1 Art. 1 | Peaceful enjoyment of property, tagged Legal Certainty on March 5, 2012 |
Merchant International v Naftogaz International [2012] EWCA Civ 196 - read judgment The Court of Appeal has ruled that domestic courts may refuse to recognise a judgment of another Convention country on the basis that it failed to respect the fair trial principles in Article 6. In this case the Ukraine Supreme Court was said to [...]
Justice wide shut
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Damages, Freedom of Information, In the news, Judges and Juries, Terrorism, tagged Justice and Security Green Paper on March 1, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Yesterday I spoke at Justice Wide Open, an excellent conference organised by Judith Townend. I mounted my usual open justice hobby horses (to coin a topical phrase) on how to make the justice system more accessible to the public, including a moan about human rights reporting. Someone told me during the break that according to [...]
Legal aid: Government backs down on clinical negligence and domestic violence
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Children, Discrimination, Family, In the news, Medical, tagged legal aid on March 1, 2012 | 4 Comments »
The Ministry of Justice has proposed two important amendments to the Legal Aid, Punishment of Offenders and Sentencing Bill. As has been predicted for a number of months, the proposals will bring a limited number of clinical negligence claims and claims arising as a result of domestic violence back within the scope of legal aid. [...]
Another control order ruled unlawful for breach of right to fair trial
Posted in Art. 5 | Right to Liberty, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case summaries, Criminal, In the news, Terrorism, tagged abu qatada, Control orders, terrorism act 2000 on February 11, 2012 | 1 Comment »
AT v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 42 – Read Judgment The Court of Appeal has upheld a challenge to a control order on the basis that the person subject to the order (‘the controllee’) had not been given sufficient information about the case against him. How do you solve [...]
Times contempt challenge thrown out in Strasbourg
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case summaries, European, Media, tagged contempt of court, contempt of court act on February 8, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Michael Alexander SECKERSON and TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED against the UK Applications nos. 32844/10 and 33510/10 – Read decision / press release The European Court of Human Rights has rejected as “inadmissible” Times Newspaper’s challenge to its 2009 conviction for contempt of court. The decision, which was made by seven judges, is a good example of [...]
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 | 10 Comments »
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 [...]
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Recommended- Latest human rights developments in the UK: 21/5/2012 – 27/5/2012 - Law Think May 27, 2012
- UK Blawg Review #10 – Part 1 - May 27, 2012
- Can the UK suspend free movement? - Free Movement Blog May 27, 2012
- Prisoners’ votes: Ballot and chain | The Economist May 25, 2012THE vexed issue of voting rights for prisoners combines two of the Conservative Party’s main preoccupations: penal policy and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)...
- We must defy Strasbourg on prisoner votes - David Davis and Jack Straw, Telegraph May 24, 2012
- Sunlight is the best disinfectant: open justice and company law proceedings May 24, 2012
- Names and CVs of Candidate Judges for Eight Countries May 24, 2012
- UK to resist giving prisoners the vote despite European court ruling | Law | The Guardian May 23, 2012
- Case law
- SCOPPOLA v. ITALY (No. 3) - 126/05 [2012] ECHR 868 (22 May 2012) May 23, 2012ECtHR Grand Chamber: automatic and indiscriminate disenfranchisement of prisoners unlawful but up to individual states how to implement changes were such a ban exist
- Dishonesty in entry clearance applications May 21, 2012An Upper Tribunal (UT) decision confirms that, where an application for entry clearance is “marred by dishonesty” – whether in the applicant’s knowledge or not and even where the applicant is presently eligible for entry – it is not a disproportionate response for the Home Secretary to refuse the application, even in light of Article 8
- MM and AO (A Child), R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 668 (18 May 2012) May 18, 2012Secretary of State acted lawfully in not ordering independent inquiry into 2009 protest at Immigration Detention Centre. Challenge by children separated from parents during protest and claiming pschiatric damage as result.
- British Sky Broadcasting Ltd & Ors, R (on the application of) v Chelmsford Crown Court [2012] EWHC 1295 (Admin) (17 May 2012) May 17, 2012Sky, BBC, ITN etc. succeed in JR of decision by court to order production of 100+ hours of video footage to Essex Police of Dale Farm protesters: "... there were no reasonable grounds for believing that the footage of over 100 hours included material likely to be of substantial value to the investigation"
- Humphreys v Revenue and Customs [2012] UKSC 18 (16 May 2012) May 16, 2012Supreme Court: paying child tax credit to "main" care giver not discriminatory under art.14 ECHR to father caring for child 3 days per week. The specific test for justifying discrimination in the context of state benefits is that with questions of social and economic strategy the Court will generally respect the legislature’s policy choice unless i […]
- Hounga v Allen & Anor [2012] EWCA Civ 609 (15 May 2012) May 16, 2012Court of Appeal: Person knowingly working illegally cannot bring racial discrimination claim against "employers"
- SCOPPOLA v. ITALY (No. 3) - 126/05 [2012] ECHR 868 (22 May 2012) May 23, 2012
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UKHRB on Twitter
- Weekend catchup from Wessen Jazrawi- prisoner voting, Bratza's replacement and peaceful protest- human rights roundup ukhumanrightsblog.com/2012/05/27/pri… 3 hours ago
- #Prisonervotes is generating some strong and contrasting opinions- see Aitken v David and Straw: guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/… telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/la… 2 days ago
- Fresh on the blog by Reuven Ziegler: the case for letting prisoners vote ukhumanrightsblog.com/2012/05/24/the… 2 days ago
- New from @rosalindenglish- police denied TV footage of Dale Farm evictions ukhumanrightsblog.com/2012/05/24/pol… 3 days ago
- Prisoner votes ruling continuing to have political repercussions guardian.co.uk/law/2012/may/2… #prisonervotes 3 days ago
- SC: for Art 6 compliance, cts can, in exceptional circumstances, extend period for filing and serving notice of appeal #extradition 3 days ago
Adam Wagner on Twitter
- RT @MsLods: UK: Barrister who called opposing lawyers "slimebags" on twitter struck off. telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/la… (ping @journlaw) 32 minutes ago
- Is David Mitchell being serious or not? Human rights … or just an excuse for Strasbourg to tell Britain what to do? gu.com/p/37pfb/tw 2 hours ago
- Prisoner voting, Bratza's replacement and peaceful protest > this week's UK #humanrights roundup just posted wp.me/pJiO3-3Fb 2 hours ago
- It's here! @charonqc tells it as it is > UK Blawg Review #10 – Part 1 j.mp/JG8V4Y 6 hours ago
- Oh! Extraordinary goings on at Charles Taylor's war crimes trial... > More on the Removal of Judge Sow j.mp/LnNQH1 2 days ago
- RT @koldo_casla: One of the best pieces I´ve ever read on the case for letting prisoners vote - Reuven Ziegler wp.me/pJiO3-3F7 via ... 2 days ago
- Recent posts
- Prisoner voting, Bratza’s replacement and peaceful protest – The Human Rights Roundup May 27, 2012 Wessen Jazrawi
- The case for letting prisoners vote – Reuven Ziegler May 24, 2012 1 Crown Office Row
- Police denied TV footage of Dale Farm evictions May 24, 2012 Rosalind English
- Time extended for appeals under Extradition Act May 23, 2012 Rosalind English
- Why no public appointment hearings for UK’s new European Court of Human Rights judge? May 23, 2012 Adam Wagner
- Don’t rely on human rights in a dismissal claim May 22, 2012 Martin Downs
- European Court of Human Rights retreats but doesn’t surrender on prisoner votes May 22, 2012 Adam Wagner
- Pssst… no secret hearings in naturalisation cases May 22, 2012 Isabel McArdle
Disclaimer
Pssst… no secret hearings in naturalisation cases
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case comments, Case law, Case summaries, Costs and Procedure, In the news, Politics / Public Order, Secret justice, tagged closed material procedure, court procedure, secret justice, special advocates on May 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
AHK and Others v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWHC 1117 (Admin) – Read judgment Secrecy and secret justice are rarely out of the public eye. The Queen’s speech included plans to allow secret hearings in civil claims, at a time when their use is highly controversial. The government argues they [...]
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