May 2012

Could Assange apply to set aside the Supreme Court judgment?

May 30, 2012

In my post earlier today about Julian Assange’s Supreme Court appeal, today’s judgment and the unusual procedural turn that followed it. To remind you, the suggestion made by Dinah Rose QC, for Julian Assange, was that she might apply to the Court asking it to reopen its judgment on the basis that the decisive legal point [...]

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Supreme Court judgment: Assange v Swedish Judicial Authority

May 30, 2012

Here’s today’s Supreme Court judgment: the Justices decide by a majority of 5 to 2 to dismiss Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition. The term “judicial authority” in Part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003 does include public prosecutors such as the Swedish one in this case, and so the European Arrest Warrant for him is [...]

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What if Julian Assange loses in the Supreme Court?

May 29, 2012

Tomorrow the UK Supreme Court gives its eagerly-awaited judgment in Assange v Swedish Judicial Authority, in which it will decide whether the Swedish prosecutor is indeed a judicial authority for the purposes of Part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003. Julian Assange argues that it isn’t, since a prosecutor isn’t a judge; therefore the European [...]

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Without Prejudice special

May 29, 2012

Before Without Prejudice returns in its normal panel format, yesterday Charon QC and I recorded a special discussion covering: Prisoners’ votes following the European Court of Human Rights’s judgment in Scoppola v Italy the proposal for developed vetting of inquest juries in national security cases Abu Qatada’s bail application (we spoke before the ruling, and [...]

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ECtHR Grand Chamber judgment: Scoppola v Italy

May 22, 2012

This case involved Italy, not Britain – but nonetheless today’s judgment of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, about prisoner’s rights to vote, represents a small but significant victory for the British government. The Court has rowed back considerably from the reasoning in the Chamber judgment, which found Italy’s automatic ban [...]

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Without Prejudice

May 18, 2012

Without Prejudice will be back soon, I’m delighted to say, in its usual panel format. But in the meantime today Charon QC and I recorded a special hour-long discussion covering a number of subjects: the recent legal “clockup” about Abu Qatada and the decision to refuse his reference to the Grand Chamber of the European [...]

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Supreme Court judgment: Humphreys v HMRC

May 16, 2012

If you’re in the business of predicting court judgments, you can sometimes end up looking a mug. My last prediction wasn’t the best. Oh, well. At least the judges agreed with me on the time limit. Anyway, while the downside of legal punditry can be a mild judicial mugging from time to time, the upside [...]

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Abu Qatada: today’s panel decision on his Grand Chamber referral

May 9, 2012

A panel of five judges meets at the European Court of Human Rights today to decide whether or not to grant Abu Qatada’s request that his case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. You’ll remember that following the Chamber’s ruling in January (saying his deportation to Jordan would not breach the ban [...]

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