By
Kirsty Walker
Last updated at 11:39 PM on 10th February 2012
Radical changes to the justice system will sweep away centuries of fair trial protections, senior lawyers and civil liberty campaigners warned yesterday.
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke wants ministers to have the power to withhold evidence they deem ‘sensitive’ from civil court hearings.
But critics say the reforms will lead to a rise in the number of secret hearings and would deny defendants the right to challenge evidence used against them.
Bad idea: Justice Secretary Ken Clarke’s proposed changes to the justice system have received much criticism
There would be more ‘Closed Material Procedures,’ where evidence is only disclosed to a judge, minister or ‘Special Advocate’ – a barrister authorised to work on national security cases.
Often, the minister exercising this new power would be a party to the case in a move which campaigners argue is an extraordinary conflict of interest.
The reforms, set out in a Green Paper, also give greater protection to government agencies in civil cases, meaning it would be easier for organisations like M15 and M16 to hide any wrongdoing.
Civil rights group Liberty has launched a ‘secret justice’ campaign to fight the plans, which it warns will have a damaging effect on investigative journalism.
Critic: Liberty’s director Shami Chakrabarti wants to see open courts remain just that
It says the reforms could have led to evidence in high profile court cases such as the Paddington rail crash or the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station being withheld from lawyers and the public.
Liberty’s director Shami Chakrabarti said: ‘The worst scandals in any democracy are often uncovered by a combination of open courts and investigative journalism.
‘This Green Paper proposes to end a centuries’ old principle that no one – even a public body – is above the law. Future ministers would be granted sweeping powers to lock down embarrassing inquests and civil claims against the powerful. Victims of gross abuses of power, the public and the Press could be left in the dark forever.
‘It was bad enough when criminal courts were replaced with secret commissions in the name of national security.
‘Now the entire civil justice system might go the same way in the name of the “public interest”.’
In a blow to the Government’s plans, 57 of the country’s 69 Special Advocates have written to ministers describing the proposals as ‘unsupportable’.
They said: ‘Closed Material Procedures represent a departure from the foundational principle of natural justice that all parties are entitled to see and challenge all the evidence relied upon before the court and to combat that evidence by calling evidence of their own.
‘They also undermine the principle that public justice should be dispensed in public.’
Despite the opposition, Mr Clarke has described the reforms as ‘common sense proposals’ which would merely ‘better equip our courts to pass judgment in cases involving sensitive information’.
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Which means if they did anything wrong they could withhold it from the public ,any high priced lawyer working for an MP can use this to their advantage ,there will be cases of illegality over the years that we will never know about and its a well known fact that judges and MPs go hand in hand and both dont live in the real world .so if they did anything wrong they will get just told off and slapped wrist with smiles and a glass of wine afterwoods
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Ken Clarke must go.He does not even begin to understand anything about crime and punishment.
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Ken Clarke is a floundering buffoon and it’s high time he was put out to grass.
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COME ON DAVE, IT TIME TO PUT THE OLD BUFFER OUT TO GRASS !!!!, WELL PAST HIS SELL BY DATE.
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This man is so far out of touch with reality that he needs to be removed from a government post and quickly before he causes irreparable damage to our legal system.
The law is meant to protect people from crime and the excesses of government and what this man is doing is changing the whole way this works at present the criminal is the only one with rights not the victim and he now wants ministers to be able to hide sensitive facts, i wonder if those sensitive facts would be anything found out about them doing something wrong?
Get rid of him now before he does real damage
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What needs ‘sweeping away’ is Ken Clarke the buffoon!
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Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke wants ministers to have the power to withhold evidence they deem ‘sensitive’ from civil court hearings. ====== would sensitive evidence also include ministers’ expenses??? This is just totally wrong but unfortunately, everything Clarke does targets the public, not the criminals and makes the country more like an Orwellian Dictatorship.
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NO! NO! NO! We live in a democracy not a police state.
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Clarke’s Star Chamber. Not a good move.
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More inappropriate ramblings from a madman (aka Ken Clarke)!
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