Right to Counsel in UK Law

We have no doubt that the omission to direct the jury in this way in the present case could not possibly have had the effect of rendering the jury's verdict unsafe or unsatisfactory. So we find that this ground does not avail the Applicant Bryant. Accordingly, the applications of both he and Oxley are refused.

But it serves as a warning that it should not be taken for granted that everyone understands the rights that are being referred to. People who are of low intelligence or are vulnerable for other reasons or who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol may need to be given more than standard formulae if their right to a fair trial is not to be compromised.

I. Frustration of a contract takes place when there supervenes an event (without default of either party and for which the contract makes no sufficient provision) which so significantly changes the nature (not merely the expense or onerousness) of the outstanding contractual rights and /or obligations from what the parties could reasonably have contemplated at the time of its execution that it would be unjust to hold them to the literal sense of its stipulations in the new circumstances; in such case the law declares both parties to be discharged from further performance.

The question is whether in the context of Article 6 the more stringent test of a balance of probabilities should apply. The adoption of such a test would sometimes require the trial of an issue or at least cross examination of deponents to affidavits. While it is true that the jurisdictional issues under the Conventions are very important, they ought generally to be decided with due despatch without hearing oral evidence.

Although the statutory context in which Adan was decided was highly material, the passage from Lord Cross' speech in Cattermole supports the view that, albeit that caution must be exercised by this court when faced with an allegation that a foreign state is in breach of its international obligations, this court does not need the statutory context in order to be free to express a view in relation to what it conceives to be a clear breach of international law, particularly in the context of human rights.

The crucial task is to devise an approach, in the context of a specific case, which best reconciles the divergent interests of the various parties. In my judgment, the approach adopted in this case and originating in the BUAV case does precisely that, having regard to the unique features of appeals under FOIA where issues of third party confidentiality and damage to third party interests loom large.