Statue of Tom Paine at Burnham Park, Morristown, USA
Lead article
UK Law Lords Say Secret Evidence on Terror Suspects is Illegal
*First published in* The Guardian, UK
"The slow creep of complacency must be resisted. If the rule of law is to mean anything, it is in cases such as these that the case must stand by principle. It must insist that the person affected be told what is alleged against him."
The future of the control order regime for terror suspects was thrown into doubt after a "historic" law lords ruling that it was unlawful to use "secret evidence" to place people under a regime that includes a 16-hour curfew.
The unanimous ruling by a panel of nine judges said it was a fundamental principle that everyone was entitled to the disclosure of sufficient material to enable them to answer effectively the case made against them.
The ruling, led by the senior law lord Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, is expected to lead to the control order regime being allowed to "wither on the vine" as the 20 terror suspects under the regime launch fresh legal challenges in response to the ruling.
It is expected that the security services will decide not to disclose the nature of the secret case against many of the suspects and instead simply allow the control orders to lapse.
The law lords said that unless a suspect was given "sufficient information about the allegations against him to enable him to give effective instructions to the special advocate" – the vetted lawyer supposed to represent their interests at closed hearings – their right to a fair trial under article six of the European convention on human rights would be breached.
As Lord Hope of Craighead put it: "The slow creep of complacency must be resisted. If the rule of law is to mean anything, it is in cases such as these that the case must stand by principle. It mu...
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Useful Links
- Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law at the University of NSW (Australia)
- Amnesty International Australia
- Amnesty International
- Australian Lawyers for Human Rights
- Australians Against Racism
- Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University (Australia)
- Global Rights (Washington USA)
- Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (Australia)
- Human Rights Council (United Nations)
- Human Rights Council of Australia
- Human Rights Watch (New York)
- InterAction Council (International)
- New Matilda
- Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (United Nations)
- The Alliance of Civilizations
- GetUp: Action for Australia
- A Just Australia
- Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
