As June fades into July ... A short roundup ...

As June fades into July, a little food for thought ...

Halsbury's Law Exchange has published an item by Lord Phillips (a former Lord Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court) on Prisoner Voting - Should Prisoners have the right to vote?

Justice - Resources on the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill which will make important changes to the law including access to judicial review.  See details of the Bill on the Parliament website.
 The British like to believe they are free, but after Snowden, Miranda and the “war on terror”, how true can this be? Are most of us free while those who seek change discover a tenuous grip on freedom?'  See
London School of Economics - The State of Freedom in Britain

UK Human Rights Blog - 'Do not resuscitate' and the Right to Die - the Human Rights Roundup - Celia Rooney 30th June.

Marilyn Stowe blog -  The unravelling of the Family Justice System by John Bolch.

That pesky EU "Presidency" ... what is it?

The European Union (EU) is based on the various European Treaties agreed by the 28 member States.  The EU is now has legal personality so far as international law is concerned but it is NOT a State.  Contrary to what the media sometimes lead us to believe, there is not a President of the European Union.  (Whether "federalists" would like there to be is another matter).  It is perhaps unfortunate that the words "President" or "Presidency" appear quite frequently because the words are used in at least five contexts relating to the various EU Institutions.

The court MAY issue a declaration of incompatibility

On 3rd September 1953, the European Convention on Human Rights came into force with the United Kingdom among the first signatories.  For the next 47 years, the Convention operated almost entirely externally to the domestic legal systems within the UK.  Many a litigant trailed to the European Court of Human Rights (E Ct HR) at Strasbourg during those years and a considerable number obtained a judgment that the UK was in breach of the Convention.  In 1998, the Human Rights Act (HRA 98) was enacted by Parliament as part of an idea of "Bringing Rights Home."  Convention rights were to be a floor and not a ceiling for human rights protection in the UK.  The Act actually came into force on 1st October 2000. 

The HRA98 does a few apparently straightforward things. 

We underrate juries .... at our peril !

Saunders J

This morning, Mr Justice Saunders was faced with an application to discharge the jury in the "phone-hacking" trial.  On Tuesday 24th June, the jury returned certain guilty verdicts against Mr Andy Coulson but there were other charges yet to be decided by the jury.  Defendant Miss Rebekah Brooks was acquitted on all the charges against her.  BBC News 24th June.

The Prime Minister - who had employed Mr Coulson at No 10 Downing Street - chose to make a statement about it being a misjudgment to have employed Mr Coulson.  It was therefore no surprise that Mr Coulson's counsel sought the discharge of the jury.  However, Saunders J decided not to do so for reasons stated here:

Ruling on application to discharge the jury in Coulson, Goodman and others.

Later, as events turned out,

Assisting Suicide: the cases of Nicklinson, Lamb and Martin

Mr Nicklinson

Updates: This post will be updated with further materials and comments as they become available ... as they undoubtedly will !

The Supreme Court has handed down judgment in the assisting suicide cases of Nicklinson, Lamb and 'Martin' (a name used for the purpose of the case).  Essentially the court has held that amendment of the Suicide Act 1961 section 2 is a matter for Parliament and no declaration of incompatibility (Human Rights Act 1998 section 4) was issued.  However, the possibility of such a declaration in the future was not ruled out.   Furthermore, the court allowed an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions and upheld the legality of the DPP's 2010 prosecutorial guidance.  The guidance was issued following the House of Lords decision in Purdy 2009.

R (on the application of Nicklinson and another) (AP) (Appellants) v Ministry of Justice (Respondent) and R (on the application of AM) (AP) (Respondent) v The Director of Public Prosecutions (Appellant)

• Judgment (PDF)
• Press summary (PDF)

View the court giving judgment via YOUTUBE

It is now to be hoped that Parliament takes the opportunity to address this matter in the light of the court's judgment.

Previous post 1st August 2013

Phone-hacking trial - charges, verdicts, links to media articles, Leveson and beyond

Charges:

What were the actual charges in the "Phone-Hacking" trial?  Here they are as published by the Crown Prosecution Service.  The charges arose from two Police investigations referred to as Operations Elveden and Weeting.

CPS - Charging announcement in relation to Operation Elveden
Crown Prosecution Service - Operation Weeting - CPS Charging Decisions

Verdicts:

Are summarised at The Independent Phone hacking trial: the verdicts in full and at  Press Gazette

Media links:

Protesters arrested ...

Please view the video with this article in a Sheffield newspaper THE STAR - Video - Police arrest protest pensioners  

It appears that there was a protest relating to cuts to rail travel passes.  Such passes are (or have been) very beneficial to many elderly people.

It is not fully possible to properly determine just from the video whether the force used by the Police was "reasonable" (as is required by the Criminal Law Act 1967 section 3 / Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 section 117) but it certainly has the appearance of being very heavy-handed on the part of the Police.  See - CPS on Reasonable Force

The powers of arrest of a constable are in section 24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (as amended by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005).  

Where an individual is aggrieved, a civil action against the Police may be possible though this is a diffcult legal area of law and practice.  Legal aid may sometimes be available though the rules are particularly complex - see Changes to civil legal aid - Practical guidance for the Bar.  An alternative is the use of Police Complaints machinery.