Sir Stephen Sedley, until last year of the Court of Appeal, has launched a stinging rebuttal to the speech of Lord Sumption (Jonathan Sumption QC as was) in which the soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice rebuked the judiciary for failing to stay out of the political arena. This blog covered Lord Sumption’s speech here. Sir Stephen’s response [...]
Archive for the ‘Judges and Juries’ Category
Former Top Judge hits back at current Top Judge
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, In the news, Judges and Juries, Lectures, tagged jonathan sumption, judicial oversight, stephen sedley on February 17, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Sound of tumbleweed greets secret civil trials proposals
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Costs and Procedure, In the news, Inquests and Inquiries, Judges and Juries, Terrorism, tagged Justice and Security Green Paper, shoulder shrug on February 14, 2012 | 5 Comments »
65 responses to the Justice and Security Green Paper consultation, which proposes introducing “Closed Material Procedures” – secret trials – into civil courts, have been published on the official consultation website. According to the site there are potentially 25 more to come. Whilst it is a good thing that the responses have been published at [...]
UK Supreme Court is tweeting, but where are the other courts?
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, In the news, Judges and Juries, Technology, tagged open justice on February 7, 2012 | 4 Comments »
The UK Supreme Court began tweeting yesterday as @UKSupremeCourt to deserved international fanfare. Some even speculated that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition fate could now be revealed on Twitter. The court is already being followed by almost 4,000 Twitter users (for the uninitiated, that is a lot) and has already beaten its own Twitter policy’s [...]
More secret trials? No thanks
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Costs and Procedure, Freedom of Information, In the news, Inquests and Inquiries, Judges and Juries, Police, Politics / Public Order, Terrorism, tagged civil proceedings, consultation responses, Justice and Security Green Paper, terrorism legislation on January 31, 2012 | 3 Comments »
A child learns early that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it. Thankfully that principle does not apply to Government consultations and this is aptly demonstrated by a group of responses to the consultation into whether “closed material” (secret evidence) procedures should be extended to civil trials. Of the responses that [...]
European Court of Human Rights: is the admissions system transparent enough? – Ben Jones
Posted in European, In the news, Judges and Juries, tagged European Court of Human Rights on January 27, 2012 | 5 Comments »
Two recent posts on this blog have brought deserved attention to the question of the European Court’s handling of admissibility decisions. In the course of criticising the substantial misrepresentation of the statistics for UK petitions to the European Court, Andrew Tickell’s piece highlighted the significant contribution of “highly discretionary concepts” in the filtering of the [...]
Is Strasbourg obsessively interventionist? A view from the Court – Paul Harvey
Posted in European, In the news, Judges and Juries, Politics / Public Order, Poor reporting on January 24, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Andrew Tickell in his recent post (Is the European Court of Human Rights obsessively interventionist?) makes a number of important points about the European Court of Human Rights’ approach to admissibility, in particular the application of the manifestly ill-founded criterion. Perhaps understandably, the majority of legal scholars have preferred to focus on the more substantive [...]
Extension of secret hearings would be “fundamentally unfair”, say Special Advocates
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, In the news, Judges and Juries, Margin of Appreciation, Politics / Public Order on January 5, 2012 | 5 Comments »
Government proposals to increase the number of court hearings held in secret, and in which parties can only see minimal evidence relied upon by the court, have been severely criticised by the “Special Advocates” who play the central role in closed hearings. The group of 57 barristers, including 19 Queen’s Counsel, argue that despite attempts, [...]
Top judge speaks! Are the judiciary becoming too outspoken?
Posted in In the news, Judges and Juries on December 8, 2011 | 5 Comments »
A lot of headlines begin with “Top judge…” at the moment. Top Judge has variously attacked MPs who reveal injunctions, expressed fears over cameras in court, warned legal aid in family cases may disappear, protested over legal aid reforms, urged murder law reforms and said Britain can ignore Europe on human rights (he didn’t, but [...]
Bratza bites back
Posted in European, In the news, Judges and Juries on November 25, 2011 | 5 Comments »
I had intended to entitle this post “Bratza goes ballistic” which would, for reasons I will explain, have been unfair. However, as reported by guardian.co.uk, the new British president of the European Court of Human Rights has pushed back strongly against the “vitriolic and – I am afraid to say, xenophobic – fury” of the [...]
A blueprint for a simpler, fairer justice system
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Family, In the news, Judges and Juries, Politics / Public Order, Technology on November 11, 2011 | 4 Comments »
The Civil Justice Council (CJC) has just released a major new report: Access to Justice for Litigants in Person (or self-represented litigants). The report attacks head-on the prospect of thousands more people having to represent themselves in court once civl legal aid is mostly taken away. The 94-page report, written by a group including a [...]
More secret justice on the horizon
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Criminal, Freedom of Information, In the news, Judges and Juries, Politics / Public Order, Terrorism, tagged secret justice on October 19, 2011 | Comments Off
The Cabinet Office has released its long awaited (by this blog at least) Justice and Security Green Paper, addressing the difficult question of to what extent the state must reveal secret information in court proceedings. A consultation has been launched on the proposals; responses can be sent via email by Friday 6 January 2012. The [...]
Why have a European Court of Human Rights? – Dr Ed Bates
Posted in European, In the news, International, Judges and Juries, tagged European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg on October 13, 2011 | 26 Comments »
At last week’s Inner Temple hall event, ‘Strasbourg and the UK: Dialogue or Conflict’, Lord Justice Laws asked some provocative questions: why should judges decide matters of social policy [thrown up by human rights cases] at all? The political rights, Article 8 – 12, with the right set out in the first part and the [...]
Don’t throw the BAILII out with the bath water
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, In the news, Judges and Juries, Technology, tagged BAILII on September 26, 2011 | 8 Comments »
The Guardian published an editorial today arguing that court judgments should be opened up to the public. The editorial challenges the fact that BAILII, the charity which currently publishes most judgments online, is not searchable on Google. Broadly speaking, it is good to see The Guardian taking up this somewhat esoteric but important topic. As [...]
Whose law is it anyway?
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Freedom of Information, In the news, Judges and Juries on July 26, 2011 | 1 Comment »
What is a “tort”? No, not a rich multilayered cake, but rather an “actionable wrong”. Tort law is also the means through which five Kenyans alleging they were mistreated in British detention camps in the 1950s may get damages. How do I know this? Because Mr Justice McCombe told me in a helpful summary of his judgment [...]
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Recommended- Murder, Terrorism - two important cases February 23, 2012
- High Court upholds University Fees Regulations February 23, 2012
- The Mayor Commonalty and Citizens of London v Samede (St Paul's Churchyard camp representative) & Ors (Rev 1) [2012] EWCA Civ 160 (22 February 2012) February 22, 2012Court of Appeal refuses permission for Occupy London to appeal High Court eviction ruling
- Gove urged to clarify position on anti-gay texts in schools - PinkNews.co.uk February 22, 2012
- BBC - Law in Action, Legal aid changes: long overdue reform or denial of justice? February 22, 2012
- KENNEDY V IC AND CHARITY COMMISSION: COURT OF APPEAL DECIDES February 22, 2012
- Legal Blogging, by former UKHRB contributor Melina Padron February 21, 2012
- Kate Malleson: Taking the politics out of judicial appointments? February 21, 2012
- Case law
- The Mayor Commonalty and Citizens of London v Samede (St Paul's Churchyard camp representative) & Ors (Rev 1) [2012] EWCA Civ 160 (22 February 2012) February 22, 2012Court of Appeal refuses permission for Occupy London to appeal High Court eviction ruling
- Hurley & Moore, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for Business Innovation & Skills [2012] EWHC 201 (Admin) (17 February 2012) February 17, 20122 students fail in judicial review of tuition fee rises. Human rights (right to education under A2/P2) challenge failed outright; public law challenge failed despite finding that Sec of State "did not carry out the rigorous attention to" Public Sector Equality Duties
- Sugar v British Broadcasting Corporation & Anor [2012] UKSC 4 (15 February 2012) February 15, 2012Supreme Court: BBC need not disclsoe Israel-Palestine coverage bias report as it falls under the "journalistic material" exemption to the Freedom of Information Act
- HARDY AND MAILE v. THE UNITED KINGDOM - 31965/07 [2012] ECHR 261 (14 February 2012) February 14, 2012Strasbourg Art 8 challenge to construction of liquefied natural gas terminals in Milford Haven harbour fails
- Milind Manohar Sanade, Damion Harrison and Conroy Maurice Walker -v- The Secretary of State for The Home Department - Upper Tribunal February 10, 2012Upper Tribunal guidelines decision on human rights exceptions to automatic deportations of immigrants with spouse and young children
- T, R (on the application of) v Greater Manchester Police & Anor [2012] EWHC 147 (Admin) (09 February 2012) February 9, 2012Student fails in human rights challenge to Enhanced Criminal Records Certificate with warning incurred when he was 11 for theft of 2 bicycles
- The Mayor Commonalty and Citizens of London v Samede (St Paul's Churchyard camp representative) & Ors (Rev 1) [2012] EWCA Civ 160 (22 February 2012) February 22, 2012
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UKHRB on Twitter
- New post > Poor not singled out by rise in university fees, rules court http://t.co/BpK09xDL 8 hours ago
- RT @For_the_defence: Thanks to @Oxfordbarsoc for a great evening at their Human Rights panel question time, great to meet @AdamWagner1 too. 9 hours ago
- Had a really fun evening at @oxfordbarsoc's human rights question time. Most of the clashes were over death penalty (P Hitchins v @amicus) 18 hours ago
- Aw shucks thanks everyone! 18 hours ago
- (-: http://t.co/cUZnLoQL 22 hours ago
- On train to Oxford for #hrqt (Human Rights Question Time) organised by @oxfordbarsoc. Anyone else coming / tweeting? 23 hours ago
- RT @JackofKent: Civil disobedience and the Rule of Law, my new post at @NewStatesman: http://t.co/cq4cb9Kc 1 day ago
- Recent posts
- Poor not singled out by rise in university fees, rules court February 22, 2012 Karwan Eskerie
- Crimes committed by victims of human trafficking – should they be prosecuted? February 22, 2012 Rosalind English
- Michael Gove’s full letter on homophobic teaching materials in schools February 22, 2012 Adam Wagner
- Keeping it controversial: Religion, deportation and open justice – The Human Rights Roundup February 20, 2012 Wessen Jazrawi
- Belgium bitten by Aarhus – again February 19, 2012 David Hart QC
- Is it legal to teach gay hate in schools? February 19, 2012 Adam Wagner
- Analysis | Court of Appeal upholds hotel gay discrimination ruling – Marina Wheeler February 19, 2012 1 Crown Office Row
- Former Top Judge hits back at current Top Judge February 17, 2012 Richard Mumford
Disclaimer
Should lawyers get named and shamed for being boring?
Posted in Art. 6 | Right to Fair Trial, Case comments, Judges and Juries on December 5, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Mortgage Agency Services Number Four Limited v. Alomo Solicitors, HHJ Simon Brown QC, [2011] EWHC B22 (Mercantile) Every so often, a judge gets so infuriated with the prolixity of an advocate that he has a real go at him in the resulting judgment, and this solicitors negligence case is a good example. However, this judge spiced up [...]
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