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Author Archives: Lewis James Brown

The Independent View: National security is paramount but ‘secret courts’ are an illiberal attack on British justice

By Lewis James Brown | Tue 29th January 2013 - 12:05 pm

In September 2012, the Liberal Democrat Conference voted overwhelmingly against the most contentious aspect of the government’s Justice and Security Bill – the extension of ‘secret courts’, otherwise known as Closed Material Procedures (CMPs), into civil courts.

This would allow ministers to submit a CMP application to a judge that material relating to national security be withheld from the defendant/claimant and their legal team despite being used as evidence. As Andrew Tyrie MP and Anthony Peto QC explain in “Neither Just nor Secure”, published today by the Centre for Policy Studies, this is worrying because “in an adversarial system such as the English one, the right to know and challenge the opposing case is not merely a feature of the system, it is the system”.

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged Centre for Policy Studies, closed material proceedings, Justice and Security Bil and secret courts | 3 Comments

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Recent Comments

Jonathan Brown
@George - me too. I know that not everyone is happy about this, but it's perfectly reasonable policy and I think all care is being taken to try to reassure thos...
George Thomas
It follows the position of what I believe is a majority of UK population of supporting Israel but being against these unlawful settlements. Maybe not brave in t...
David Le Grice
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expats
Dr Ruvi ZIEGLER 11th Sep '26 - 10:44am You ref..."These measures are a direct response to continuous shifts in policy in Israel over many years which have deep...
Jonathan Brown
@Andy Daer - there is certainly a LOT I haven't addressed in my article, and am not going to address here, if only for lack of time and space. But a few points....