R (Medihani) v. HM Coroner for Inner South District of Greater London [2012] EWHC 1104 (Admin) – Read judgment. In what circumstances is a criminal trial not sufficient to discharge the State’s duties under Article 2, the right to life, towards a victim of murder? The High Court held last week in this tragic case [...]
Archive for the ‘Criminal’ Category
“Murder most foul”: The right to life investigating homicide
Posted in Art. 2 | Right to life, Case summaries, Criminal, Inquests and Inquiries on May 1, 2012 |
Man can be deported despite living in UK since age of three
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Case law, Case summaries, Criminal, Immigration/Extradition, International, Mental Health, tagged deportation, Family life, Private life on April 15, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Balogun v UK [2012] ECHR 614 - Read judgment It has been a week of victories for the UK government in deportation cases in the European Court of Human Rights. On the same day as the ECtHR found that Abu Hamza and four others could be extradited to the US on terrorism charges, it also rejected [...]
What’s so wrong with incest? The case of Stübing v Germany
Posted in Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Criminal, European, Medical, tagged human rights on April 15, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Stübing v Germany (no. 43547/08), 12 April 2012 - Read judgment The European Court of Human Rights (fifth section) has ruled unanimously that Germany did not violate Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (right to respect for private and family life) by convicting Patrick Stübing of incest Professor Jonathan Haidt, a well-known social psychologist, presented [...]
Common-law open justice lets in the light; Strasbourg not the key
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Case law, Criminal, Freedom of Information, International, Media on April 10, 2012 | 4 Comments »
R (o.t.a Guardian Newspapers) v. City of Westminster Magistrates Court, USA as Interested Party, 3 April 2012, Court of Appeal: read judgment No, not a case about secret trials, but about the way in which newspapers can get hold of court papers in open oral hearings. And, as we shall see, it led to a [...]
The Erika disaster – why we need an international environmental court
Posted in Case comments, Case law, Criminal, Environment, European, In the news, International on April 8, 2012 | 4 Comments »
A long saga with a very new twist which should make even the most strident critic of international courts think again. On 12 December 1999, the Erika sank some 60 nautical miles off the Brittany coast, spilling some 20,000 tonnes of heavy fuel which in due course polluted some 400 km of the French coastline. [...]
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 [...]
The dangers of data snooping – Angela Patrick
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Criminal, In the news, Police, Politics / Public Order, Technology, tagged Communications Data Bill 2008, data snooping, surveillance on April 6, 2012 | 6 Comments »
Civil liberties and the coalition have been happily filling the political pages this week. The damning conclusion of the Joint Committee on Human Rights that there is no evidence to justify expanding closed proceedings (expertly dissected by Rosalind English earlier in the week) vied for column inches with leaks that the Government planned to introduce [...]
No extradition for Shrien Dewani – for now
Posted in Art. 2 | Right to life, Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Case law, Case summaries, Criminal, Immigration/Extradition, In the news, Mental Health, Prisons, tagged extradition, extradition act, Immigration/Extradition, Mental Health, prison on March 31, 2012 |
The Government of the Republic of South Africa v Shrien Dewani- Read decision The extradition to South Africa of Shrien Dewani, the man accused of murdering his wife on honeymoon there in 2010, has been delayed pending an improvement in his mental health. The case made headlines in 2010, when the story broke of a honeymooning [...]
Strasbourg rules on anti-gay speech for the first time
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Criminal, Margin of Appreciation, tagged human rights, queer in the 21st century on March 13, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Vejdeland and Others v Sweden (Application no. 1813/07) – Read judgment “Will both teacher and pupils simply become the next victims of the tyranny of tolerance, heretics, whose dissent from state-imposed orthodoxy must be crushed at all costs?”, asked Cardinal O’Brien in his controversial Telegraph article on gay-marriage. He was suggesting that changing the law [...]
Crimes committed by victims of human trafficking – should they be prosecuted?
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Criminal, In the news, tagged crime, Crown Prosecution Service, human trafficking on February 22, 2012 | 3 Comments »
R v N; R v LE [2012] EWCA Crim 189 – read judgment This was the first occasion when the Court of Appeal has considered the problem of child trafficking for labour exploitation. It has not previously been subject to any close analysis following the coming into force in 2005 of the European Convention on [...]
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 [...]
Scottish bail conditions breach human rights to liberty, rules Scottish court
Posted in Art. 5 | Right to Liberty, Case comments, Criminal, Scotland on February 10, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Cameron v. Procurator Fiscal [2012] ScotHC HCJAC_19 – Read judgment Amongst Scots lawyers, few judicial observations are more notorious than those uttered by Lord Cranworth in the House of Lords in Bartonshill Coal Co v Reid in 1858. “If such be the law of England,” he said, “on what ground can it be argued not [...]
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 [...]





Refusal of child care leave to female prisoners was unlawful, rules High Court
Posted in Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, Case comments, Case summaries, Criminal, Family, In the news, Prisons, tagged child protection, children's rights, Prisoners on April 16, 2012 |
MP, R(on the application of) v the Secretary of State for Justice [2012] EWHC 214 (Admin) – read judgment The prison authorities had acted unlawfully in restricting childcare resettlement leave to prisoners who were within two years of their release date and had been allocated to “open” conditions. Two female prisoners applied for judicial [...]
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