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Showing posts with label A Lawyer Writes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A Lawyer Writes. Show all posts
A Lawyer Writes ✒ Inquiry says ministry has allocated insufficient resources to evidence disclosure. Written by Joshua Rozenberg. Recommended by Christy Walsh. 

The independent judicial inquiry into alleged unlawful killings by UK special forces in Afghanistan has run into delays because the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has not put enough resources into meeting the inquiry’s deadlines.

The inquiry is now examining what were called deliberate detention operations. It says the MoD has known of the inquiry’s timings “for some considerable time”.

A spokesperson for the inquiry said it had set out a phased approach to its work and told the MoD at various times last year how it wanted to proceed with its evidential timetable.

“The MoD do not have enough resources allocated to meet those deadlines for the disclosure of evidence,” the spokesperson added. The government’s suggested timeline would substantially delay the inquiry’s work.

Sir Charles Haddon-Cave, the appeal judge appointed by the MoD to chair the inquiry, had wanted to deliver his report without delay. “However,” said the spokesperson, “this issue makes it clear that the chair’s original timetable may now not be possible.”

Continue reading @ A Lawyer Writes.

MoD Accused Of SAS Inquiry Delays

A Lawyer Writes ✒ Written by Joshua Rozenberg. Recommended by Christy Walsh.

A High Court judge has been accused of Islamophobia by an accredited human rights campaign group after ruling that a school could lawfully prohibit its pupils from performing prayer rituals on its premises.

Mr Justice Linden dismissed a challenge brought on behalf of an unnamed Muslim student at Michaela Community School in north-west London who wanted to perform one of her five daily prayers during what she regarded as her lunch break.

The school, which is heavily oversubscribed, is a secular secondary free school for girls and boys with exceptionally strict rules — required in part because it is located in an unsuitable seven-storey office block. Around half the 700 pupils are Muslims.

Katharine Birbalsingh, the school’s founder and head teacher, had told its governing body that the decision to ban prayer rituals last year was not taken lightly:

Unacceptable segregation or division, contrary to the whole ethos of the school, was taking place as a result of permitting prayer. An intimidatory atmosphere was developing. Our strict disciplinary policies, on which the ethos and great success of school is based, were at risk of being undermined.

Continye reading @ A Lawyer Writes.

Islamophobia?

A Lawyer Writes ✒ Written by Joshua Rozenberg. Recommended by Christy Walsh.

Should the Court of Appeal be able to block appeals to the UK Supreme Court against legal rulings it has delivered in criminal cases? 

The question is of particular importance to two former bankers who lost their appeals against fraud convictions last week after they were found to have rigged benchmark interest rates.

In civil proceedings, an appeal to the Supreme Court requires permission from either the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court itself. Court rules say you have to ask the lower court first. If permission is refused — as it usually is — you can then ask the Supreme Court for permission.

That means the Supreme Court can mostly choose its own cases — dining à la carte, as it is said.

In a criminal case, the law is different:

An appeal lies to the Supreme Court… only with the leave of the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court; and leave shall not be granted unless it is certified by the Court of Appeal that a point of law of general public importance is involved in the decision . . . 

Continue reading @ A Lawyer Writes.

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