R (Miranda) v Home Secretary: witness statement of Detective Supt. Caroline Goode

A few weeks ago I published the witness statement of Oliver Robbins served on behalf of the Home Secretary in the Miranda case. That statement referred (at para. 32) to a further statement to be served by the police, also in opposition to David Miranda’s application for an injunction. Now I can also publish that […]

Miranda v Home Secretary: today’s hearing and order

Today’s hearing at the High Court before Lord Justice Beatson and Mr Justice Kenneth Parker was interesting, and not just because of the order they made. But let me turn to that order first. The court has ordered that until a further hearing next Friday, August 30th, the government and the police may not inspect, […]

David Allen Green at the privacy and injunctions committee

Yesterday the joint committee of the Lords and Commons on privacy and injunctions took evidence from bloggers including not only the notorious Guido Fawkes, but I’m pleased to say my old Without Prejudice colleague and leading law blogger David Allen Green, who of course was able to give evidence from the point of view not […]

Without Prejudice

In this week’s Without Prejudice podcast, Financial Times General Counsel Tim Bratton joins Charon QC, David Allen Green and me to talk about: contempt of court in the week Twitter typed two fingeredly to the courts privacy law, the media, and that footballer whether we have privacy law, a tort of privacy, or what (including […]

Hemming does his worst

As I think readers will surely know by now, John Hemming MP used Parliamentary privilege today to name the footballer whose anonymity is protected in this privacy case by an injunction, which the High Court decided earlier today to maintain in force. Since then, first Sky News and now the BBC have named the footballer […]

Breaching so-called “superinjunctions” on Twitter: is this how low we’ve sunk?

The BBC has reported that someone on Twitter has purported to “out” a number of celebrities who have supposedly obtained “superinjunctions” to protect their privacy. It’s unlikely of course that all of them are “superinjunctions” at all, which are injunctions the existence of which cannot be reported. And who knows whether any of what’s been […]

John Hemming, sub judice and the public interest: “no abuse of parliamentary procedure”?

Yesterday afternoon there was speculation that John Hemming MP was planning to “break a superinjunction” in the House under cover of Parliamentary privilege. Then, not long after 5 o’clock, John Hemming made a point of order in the Commons [update: hyperlink removed – see comment 12 below], naming a woman, and a local authority, who […]

ZAM v CFW & TFW: has John Hemming changed his mind?

I posted recently about last month’s High Court judgment in this case, in which Mr Justice Tugendhat granted an injunction to stop allegations which were not even defended as true, and which Tugendhat J thought could involve an attempt at blackmail. The judge also granted anonymity to the claimant, ZAM. Here’s what John Hemming MP […]

John Hemming MP: abuse of power, and privilege

Last week John Hemming MP secured a debate in Westminster Hall about the role of Parliament in dealing with all grievances and the importance of freedom of communication between constituents and Members. Here’s the debate in Hansard, and here’s the video of the debate. He raised a number of very serious issues: the main issue […]

In defence of superinjunctions

I’m pleased the Guardian defeated Carter-Ruck in the Trafigura, Minton report, superinjunction affair. I don’t know or understand why a superinjunction was granted preventing publication of the fact of the injunction (as opposed to an ordinary injunction merely preventing publication of the Minton report), and I doubt it was right for the judge to grant […]