26-11-2004, 01:52 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Long Ashton, Bristol
Posts: 9,821
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Lord Steyn attacks fellow law lord over Guantanamo Bay
Telegraph Article
Quote:
Courts must never abdicate their duty to protect citizens from the abuse of power by governments, a senior judge said last night.
The United States government has already created "a hellhole of utter lawlessness" at Guantanamo Bay by committing such abuse, according to Lord Steyn, a leading law lord.
In a highly unusual move, he launched a public attack on Lord Hoffmann, a fellow law lord, for suggesting that the courts should not interfere with certain Government decisions.
On the contrary, Lord Steyn told a group of lawyers and judges in Belfast, it was the "democratic and constitutional duty of judges to stand up where necessary for individuals against the Government".
"If the judges of today teach a new generation of lawyers, and judges, that complaisance by the judiciary to the views of the legislature and the executive in policy areas is the best way forward, one of the pillars of our democracy will have been weakened," he added in a lecture to the Judicial Studies Board.
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