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 ‘Terrorism’ 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 »
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 [...]
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 [...]
US press response to Abu Hamza extradition decision
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Art. 8 | Right to Privacy/Family, European, Immigration/Extradition, In the news, Terrorism on April 11, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Waking up in New York this morning, I find the newspapers are much exercised by the recent decision of the Strasbourg Court to allow the extradition of certain terror suspects to the US, as discussed in Isabel McArdle’s post. The colourful New York Post declares unambiguously that “Thugs face Extradition” (April 11), following its banner [...]
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 [...]
Suspected terrorist regains British citizenship
Posted in Case summaries, In the news, Politics / Public Order, Terrorism, tagged citizenship, nationality, Terrorism on March 29, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Hilal Abdul-Razzaq Ali Al‐Jedda v Secretary of State for the Home Department March 29 – read judgment The Court of Appeal has allowed the suspected terrorist Al‐Jedda’s appeal against the Home Secretary’s decision to deprive him of his British nationality. The appellant, an Iraqi refugee, was granted British nationality in 2000. Four years later however [...]
Secrecy for torture evidence – analysis
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Case comments, In the news, Terrorism, tagged deportation, evidence, public interest, secrecy, security, Torture on March 8, 2012 | 4 Comments »
W (Algeria) (FC) and BB (Algeria) (FC) and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] UKSC 8 – read judgment As we reported in our summary of the decision earlier, the Supreme Court has confirmed that the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) has the power to order that certain witness evidence may be produced in [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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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) 34 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
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 [...]
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