Covert Policing Law Blog
Essays on Surveillance LawAn Informer v A Chief Constable: a Source of real concern
Judgment in the recent case of An Informer v A Chief Constable [2012] EWCA Civ 197 appears to have been published with relatively little controversy. This is surprising, not because it is the principal judgment on the scope of the polices’ duty of care to Covert Human...
Are you now or have you ever been a journalist with News International? The rise of McCarthyism in the UK
I ought to say at the outset that this article has nothing to with McCarthyism, a term that evolved in the aftermath of the House Un-American Activities Committee chaired by Senator Joe McCarthy, where the infamous question: “are you now or have you have you ever been...
The Decline of the Presumption of Innocence
The presumption of innocence finds its evolutionary origins as a constitutional right in chapters 39 and 40 of the Magna Carta. Lord Bingham said that these provisions of our earliest human rights charter “have the power to make the blood race”. Cast an eye over the...
Domestic Violence and Threats to Life
The following appeared in the Times on-line, on 14 April 2011, Beaten Women, why the Police do need Training: The speech by Keir Starmer,QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions about the extent of domestic violence — two women are killed a week — is groundbreaking and...