Law: in brief (7)
01 January 1991
Law: in brief
artdoc June=1994
* Challenge to exclusion: An Irish man who was excluded under the
Prevention of Terrorism Act has succeeded in having his case
referred to the European Court of Justice. The Court will be
asked to consider whether the PTA's provisions for making and
reviewing exclusion orders are compatible with European
requirements of due process. R v Home Secretary ex parte
Gallagher, Court of Appeal 16.2.94.
* Store detectives and the right to silence: As the draconian
provisions modifying the right to silence (see Statewatch vol 3,
no 6 & vol 4, no 1) passed the Lords Committee stage, Home
Officer ministers disclosed that silence in the face of
questioning by store detectives and other non-police officers
will attract the same adverse judicial comments at trial as
silence in police interviews. The admission, in a letter from
criminal justice minister David Maclean to Neil Gerrard MP, adds
weight to suspicions that the government plans to privatise much
of the policing of minor crime, and to concerns that the criminal
justice system is being directed by considerations other than the
ends of justice. Independent 2, 4, 11.2.94; Guardian 5.3.94.
* Journalist's source protected: A journalist who wrote a
critical article about the escape from Broadmoor of two convicted
murderers based on a leaked confidential report did not have to
reveal his source, the High Court held. The hospital authorities
wanted to know who had leaked the report, but had failed to make
any inquiries themselves. The judge held that disclosure of a
source could only be ordered under the 1981 Contempt of Court Act
if the hospital could show that it was necessary in the interests
of justice to do so, and they had not made out a case that it
was. Broadmoor Hospital v Hyde, Independent 4.3.94.
* Judges breakdown: According to figures from Hansard, as of
October/November 1993, there were 95 High Court judges of whom
six were women. There were no Black or Asian High Court Judges.
There were 279 full-time District Judges (County Court) of whom
22 were women and one was Asian; another five women and one
Asian, out of a total of seventeen, were full time District
Judges in the Family Division. Of 797 Queen's Counsel in private
practice 41 were women. It was believed that there were three
Black and five Asian Queen's Counsel. Hansard 29.11.93, cols 285,
287-288
* Spain: deporting foreign prisoners: the Spanish authorities
have announced that all foreign prisoners serving up to six years
in jail are to be deported in an attempt to reduce prison
overcrowding. Government figures put the number of foreigners
held in prison as 6,563 out of a total population of 45,000.
Included in this figure are 1,380 prisoners from other EU
countries some 900 of whom could be transferred to their country
of origin to serve out their sentences. The order for the
expulsions has been carried out under the 1985 immigration laws
and would affect those waiting trial as well as serving
prisoners. A Ministry of Interior spokesman said that it was
intended to deter those entering the country illegally from
committing petty crimes in order to prolong their stay. European,
11.3.94.
*Illegal immigrants to be prosecuted: the Attorney-General, Sir
Nicholas Lyell, has announced that in future the Crown
Prosecution Office will not recommend deporting illegal
immigrants charged with serious offences but will prosecute them.
Police Review, 11.3.94.
Statewatch Vol 4 no 2, March-April 1994