BSkyB and another, R(on the application of) v Chelmsford Crown Court [2012] EWHC 1295 (Admin) – read judgment The police failed to satisfy the court that their need for footage taken by TV organisations was likely to be of substantial value to criminal investigations and therefore would be a justified interference with the rights of [...]
Archive for the ‘Politics / Public Order’ Category
Police denied TV footage of Dale Farm evictions
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Case summaries, In the news, Politics / Public Order, tagged Dale Farm evictions, Freedom of Expression, Police, police investigations on May 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
European Court of Human Rights retreats but doesn’t surrender on prisoner votes
Posted in Case comments, European, Politics / Public Order, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections, tagged human rights on May 22, 2012 | 8 Comments »
CASE OF SCOPPOLA v. ITALY (No. 3)(Application no. 126/05) – Read judgment / press release / press release on UK implications The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that states must allow for at least some prisoners to vote, but that states have a wide discretion as to deciding which prisoners. [...]
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 [...]
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 »
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. [...]
Peace campaigner evicted from Parliament Square using new law – Marina Wheeler
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Art. 11 | Freedom of Association, Case comments, Housing, Politics / Public Order, tagged Maria Gallastegui, Parliament square, Protest, protest rights on May 17, 2012 | 2 Comments »
R (on the application of Maria Gallastegui) v Westminster City Council [2012] EWHC 1123 (Admin) - Read judgment On 27 April 2012, Maria Gallastegui, a peace campaigner and resident of the East pavement of Parliament Square since 2006, lost her legal battle to continue her 24 hour, tented vigil in protest against the folly of [...]
Battle of the bus lanes: Addison Lee injuncted by High Court
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case summaries, Discrimination, Politics / Public Order, tagged Addison Lee on May 3, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Transport for London (TfL) v Griffin & Ors [2012] EWHC 1105 (QB) - Read Judgment Transport for London (TfL) have succeeded in their High Court application for an injunction restraining Addison Lee Taxis from encouraging drivers to use London bus lanes. Mr Justice Eder ruled that the injunction would not breach Addison Lee Chairman John Griffin’s free expression [...]
Yes, come to the library! Browse and borrow, and help make sure it’ll still be here tomorrow…
Posted in Case comments, Education, Politics / Public Order, Protocol 2 Art. 1 | Right to education, Spending cuts, tagged library closures, spending cuts on May 2, 2012 | 7 Comments »
“Yes, come to the library! Browse and borrow, and help make sure it’ll still be here tomorrow…” Thus concludes “Library poem”, penned by Children’s Laureate and Gruffalo creator Julia Donaldson, the latest high profile recruit to the campaign against planned library closures. There have been a number of developments since we last blogged on this issue: [...]
New report on worldwide human rights and democracy
Posted in Features, In the news, International, Politics / Public Order, tagged human rights, international human rights on April 30, 2012 | 4 Comments »
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has launched the Human Rights and Democracy- The 2011 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report, which aims to provide “a comprehensive look at the human rights work of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) around the world in 2011“. The report makes for essential reading for anyone with an interest in [...]
UK vs. Strasbourg: don’t believe the hype – Alice Donald
Posted in Bill of Rights, European, Politics / Public Order, tagged Brighton Conference, EHRC, European Court of Human Rights on April 20, 2012 | 9 Comments »
The Abu Qatada deadline debacle has once again thrust the European Court of Human Rights – and in particular, its relationship with the UK – into unwanted controversy just as European representatives gathered in Brighton to debate the Court’s future. This new fracas over the deportation of Abu Qatada has acted as a lightning rod [...]
Things to put in your Brighton Conference rucksack
Posted in Bill of Rights, European, In the news, Politics / Public Order, tagged Brighton Conference, European Court of Human Rights on April 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »
As the last hurrah of its Chairmanship of the Council of Europe, beginning today the United Kingdom is hosting the High Level Conference on the Future of the European Court of Human Rights in Brighton. As delegates settle into their Eurostar seats on the way over, here are a few useful tips: 1. If you have forgotten sun [...]
“Thinking the unthinkable”? Freedom of information and the NHS Risk Register – Robin Hopkins
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case summaries, Freedom of Information, Medical, Politics / Public Order, tagged NHS Risk Register on April 16, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Department of Health v IC, Healey and Cecil(EA/2011/0286 & EA/2011/0287) - Read Decision In a recent post, Panopticon brought you, hot-off-the-press, the Tribunal’s decision in the much-publicised case involving publication, under Freedom of Information Law, of the NHS Risk Register. Somewhat less hot-off-the-press are my observations. This is a very important decision, both for its engagement [...]
Security bodies, private emails: parallels between the UK and US – Robin Hopkins
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Freedom of Information, Politics / Public Order, Terrorism, tagged extraordinary rendition, freedom of information on April 12, 2012 |
Today was one of striking parallels between the USA and the UK in terms of litigation concerned with access to information. APPGER and security bodies First, one of The Independent‘s main stories this morning concerned a case brought in the US by the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition (APPGER). Readers will recall that [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]





The case for letting prisoners vote – Reuven Ziegler
Posted in Case comments, European, In the news, Politics / Public Order, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections, tagged Hirst No. 2, human rights, prisoner votes, Scoppola on May 24, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Last Tuesday saw the latest episode in the prisoner voting legal saga with the European Court of Human Rights’ Grand Chamber’s judgment reversing the Chamber judgment which found Italy’s automatic ban on voting for prisoners serving over 3 years in prison (and a lifetime ban with the possibility of future relief for those sentenced to more than [...]
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