The Special Advocates’ latest analysis, as submitted to the JCHR: They say,as they have all along, that there is “no compelling justification for the proposals in Part 2 of the Bill has been made out, notwithstanding the Government’s assertions to the contrary“.
“People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both”
~ Benjamin Franklin
Shhh…
The Justice and Security Bill, which will allow secret ‘closed material’ hearings to take place in civil trials, has been quietly (almost too quietly) making its way through Parliament. The Bill will allow judges to exclude lawyers, press, the public and even litigants in their own cases from civil hearings which involve national security.
Kafkaesque is a term which is used in practically every critical article about law ever written. But I have read The Trial (I really have!), and the effect of these proposals are not too far from that.
The key development is that many of the amendments forced through in the House of Lords under the leadership of Lord Pannick have been reversed by the Government.
We have a full update coming later on the progress of the Bill, but I thought that in the mean time I would highlight a few up to date resources and developments:
- This Parliamentary briefing by Alexander Horne is excellent as usual. A great starting point for anyone who wants to know about the bill and its progress through Parliament.
- The Joint Committee on Human Rights’ (JCHR) second legislative scrutiny report(more on that later) – summary here.
- The Special Advocates’ latest analysis, as submitted to the JCHR: They say,as they have all along, that there is “no compelling justification for the proposals in Part 2 of the Bill has been made out, notwithstanding the Government’s assertions to the contrary“.
- 703 lawyers (including me) signed a petition organised by Liberty against the proposals – you can read the full list here and more coverage here.
- Here is Robert Buckland MP, a former barrister, defending the Bill on Conservative Home. It was only on reading this article that I discovered that there is aConservative Party Human Rights Commission, and has been since 2005. That might sound a bit surprising given how little love there seems to be for human rights in the Tory party generally and the cabinet specifically. The mystery is solved on the ‘about’ page: the Human Rights Commission only focuses on international human rights. On that, read this.
More later. For now… shhh.
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UK Human Rights Blog 1 Crown Office Row Chambers
Dear Minister,
I strongly oppose the Government’s plan in the Justice and Security Bill to extend the controversial Closed Material Procedures (CMP) to ordinary civil law cases and oust the court’s jurisdiction to hear certain Norwich Pharmacal applications for disclosure.
As a lawyer, I believe the changes set out in the Justice and Security Bill are contrary to the Rule of Law and should not be brought into force.
The plans for secret courts erode core principles of our civil justice system including the right to a fairtrial, equality of arms and
open justice.
They will fatally undermine the court room as an independent and objective forum in which allegations of wrongdoing can be fairly tested and where the Government can be transparently held to account.
I urge you to abandon these dangerous and unnecessary plans.
Robin Allen QC
Alex Bailin QC
David Blunt QC
Paul Bogan QC
Paul Bowen QC
Joel Donovan QC
Brendan Finucane QC
Michael Fordham QC
David Friedman QC
Mark George QC
Stephen Grosz QC
John Hendy QC
Javan Herberg QC
Richard Hermer QC
Patricia Hitchcock QC3
Sir Jeffrey Jowell QC
Helena Kennedy QC
Stephen Kenny QC
Judy Khan QC
Ian Macdonald QC
Michael Mansfield QC
Jeremy Morgan QC
Helen Mountfield QC
Gordon Nardell QC
Ali Naseem Bajwa QC
Andrew Neish QC
Tim Otty QC
Ian Peddie QC
Tony Peto QC
Karen Quinlivan QC
Dinah Rose QC
Philippe Sands QC
Timothy Scott QC
Craig Sephton QC
Hugh Southey QC
Jemima Stratford QC
Anthony Temple QC
Nigel Tozzi QC
Nicholas Vineall QC
Pete Weatherby QC
Victoria Abrahams
Elkan Abrahamson
Keren Adams
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5 Responses
bet you will dfind atos helping out there somewere graylings puppets jeff3 this sounds of Unum again
BROKEN BRITAIN UNDER TORIES – NEW JUSTICE & SECURITY BILL SNEAKING IN
Whilst Cameron/Clegg and Miliband are grieving or celebrating over the Eastleigh Bye election on face ,the new Justice & Security Bill is weaving its way through Parliament very quietly .The Bill will enshrine in Law CMP’s Closed Material Procedures ,it challenges two main principles of the rule of Law – Open Justice & Natural Justice .Under the Terrorism Act you can be detained for up to 28 days and when this act becomes Law you can be detained ‘Tried’ and convicted without Public Knowledge
Cameron obviously favours this Bill because Privatisation issues will no doubt be held under a CMP -Similar to Blair repealing the Treason Act to cover his back over Iraq ,Cameron will sew everything up with CMP’s for Stealth Privatisation of NHS,Police and other National Bodies without Public Knowledge .But where is our Opposition – we haven’t one ,because papers emanating from Iraq and Libya implicate both Governments complicity in deals in exchange for dubious practices .www.brokenbritainundertories.com
Whatever anyone tells me about justice being fair in the uk, always makes me laugh…..
There is only one winner and its driven by cash or influence. If you can afford the most expensive lawyers and barristers you are always likely to walk away unscathed, strangely the victors are awarded costs anyway.
To put it in laymans terms, the whole fucking system is rotten from the top to the bottom!
Influence always goes a long way. Being a government minister or a chief police officer has its rewards…..
We are plebs and society has a way of never letting us forget this. Going into a court of law with some old fart in a threadbare wig and an old santa claus cloak snarling at you is commonplace.
You are meant to feel insignificant, the lowest of the lowest. Slick talking barristers remind you that you should have done better in english at school as they annihilate your lowly character before the jury….
” My Lord ” ” Your Honour”…… What a load of old bollocks!
Supposed to be judged by your peers, look it up in the dictionary, peers mean somebody on the same level. An equal.
The biggest crooks in our society are the same twats that try to lay down the law. They have an immediate advantage knowing how to circumvent it or twist it…..
But, and i emphasise, but, they havent gone the whole hog yet, they want the power to hush it up as well.
Are we a society with secrets or a secret society? All around us important transcripts and hearings are being suppressed at an alarming rate. Why have an Inquest if valuable information is removed, redacted or is hidden till a future date.
Big Brother is going a full circle and disappearing up its own arse. First they want surveillance cameras to record whats happening and now they plan to hide it!
One things for certain, the powers that be have lots they would like to bury. Sadly its not information for the public domain, just the poor and disabled who are leaving this world due to ill conceived policies…………..
Justice, you must be joking………
Never mind an investigation into health trusts, what about the death rate increase courtesy of our twisted imbeciles in government.
The amount must be truly shocking and will no doubt increase as they pursue their campaign against the poorest in society.
These bungling fools have lots they wish to hide and will corrupt the laws to achieve it.
Great Britain must have more laws than the rest of europe put together, and more than its fair share of bent judges to enact it.
Every time i read of a trial or an inquiry and the judge carries the prefix of sir or lord before his name, immediately you realise its a foregone conclusion……
Marvelous this new word ” Terrorism”. Prior to our invasion on foreign shores the word was seldom heard of.
We brought the word in to our vocabulary by the act of an idiotic prime minister listening to, “pissed with power” yanks.
Terrorism has been manipulated by the powers that be to hide the truth of our missions abroad. As i speak, parliamentarians are pushing ahead with the Justice and Security Bill.
In no way does it make our country any safer whatsoever, it is merely an attempt to mask political decisions from the public eye.
………I thought it was just the electricity generators that were trying to keep us in the dark through exorbitant bills.
Secret means exactly what it means. Why should anybody be able to remove information from the public domain?.
Already inquiry details are being withheld, you must stop and ask why?. What can be so important that the government wants to hide it?.
There can only be one answer, they are complicit in crimes that would normally be challenged if they were to be in the public domain.
Suffice to say, rubbing out their footprints and perverting the course of justice.