If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. STl(~E i l 1 J t .- ~ '- ..-....,. ~ , i ~, ~ I """" ~ \ Ia " -.--.-. .JUSTICE Britisff Section(1lih~ internqiional Commission o/Jllrists, CONTENTS .p.:; PAGE CHAIRMAN OF COuNCIL Extracts from Constitution 2 Sir John Foster, K.B~E.,Q;C." Chairman's Introduction 3 o Human Rights .. 5 .~VICE-CHAlRMA1,'l Criminal Justice 6 Lord,. Foot Devlin Committee Report N:CJR:S 7 Remedies for Wrong Convictions 9 CHAIRMAN OF EXECUTIVE cOMI\.nTTEE Criminal Appeals and Legal Aid 9 '.Geoffriy Garrett" .. ' Luton Murder Case AUG 10 , ' " Other References 11 JorntVICE-C:H:AIRMEN James Report .. 11 iewisEawser, Q.c. Bail Bill A C ~, . .. .. 12 . Paqi Sieg\1arr Complaints against the Police.. .• Gt)U~SrrffOr\~S .13 Accusatorial System 14 HON. TREAsURER Heilbron Committee on Rape 14 Michael :8f)':ceson Duty Solicitors 15 Offences relating to the Administration of Justice 15 COUNCIL Decriminalisation 16 Boards of Visitors 17 . Prof. Sir Nonnan Anderson...Sir.Desmorid Heap. 17 . (}?BJl., Q.C.· Muir.Hunter,Q:c;· (/ Interviews with Prisoners () . 17 . Peter Carter-Rupk . Tom Kellock, Q.C. Privacy .. 18 Anthony Cripps,Q.c.· . Philip Kimber Compensation for Disablement 18 Michael Ellman James Lemldn Defamation 19 . P/:Iilip:Engllsh' Blanche Eueas . Bankruptcy 20 Rt.. Hon. Lord. GC\.rdiner, C.H. Edward Lyons, Q.C., M.P. Criminal Injuries Compensation Board Litigants in Person 20 EdWardGardner,Q.9;~ M,P.. Ainslie Narrn .. 21 . Prof.]. Po .GC\.l'D,er • .MichaeISheqard, Q.C. Royal Commission 011 Legal Services 21 Gerald(podfi"ey,Q;c. Laurence Shurman" Complaints against Solicitors .. 21 Prot.. Roy 'l'homas; Administrative Division of the High Court .. GoodeJetrr~y' Q.C.~M,P. 22 WiIIiamGoodhart t:li;(ld~ Wegg~Pfosser Community Land Bill .. 23 Percy GrieYe, Q.c" M.~; WHIiamVVelIs,Q.c. Parliamentary Commissioner .. 23 Prof. C. J, Hams~:iD. 'David Widdicombe, Q~c. Motorway Inquiries 23 " Glyn Hardwicke .Lor~ Wigoder, Q.C. Statutory Agencies J. E.HalI Williams';, . Development Control Review .. 24 Passports 24 Overseas Aff~!rs 24 . DlREc;roR OF RESEARCH , 25 . Alec. Samllels, J:.'p .• International Commission of Jurists .. , . ": . .' General Information and Activities 26 . .., (). Annual General Meeting 28 . S~CRt:TARY".· '... W. ! Mr. Elliot Richardson's Address 29 TOI::r(Sargant, O.II.E., ~;P •. Annual Members' Conference 30 Meetings with other Sections .. 31 .' " .LEGAL iSECRlITAltY . Membership Particulars 34 R .. C~H.Bri~gS JUSTICE Publications 35 2 Clement!! Inn, StraM, L~n~()n WC2A2PX" Ol-405601~, . .' ..' 1 . i. Extracts fron1 the Constitution CHAIRMAN'S INTRODUCTION PREAMBLE rt was an honour and a privilege for me to be invited to succeed Lord Whereas JUSTICE was formed through a common endeavour of lawyers Gardiner as Chairman of the Council of JUSTICE. We were both founder representing the three main political parties to uphold the principles of members and, except for the period when he went to the House of Lords justice and the right to a fair trial, it is hereby agreed and declared by us, and became Lord Chancellor, we have served and worked closely together. the Founder Members of the Council, that we will faithfully pursue the The extent of his work for law reform, including the creation of the objects set out in the Constitution of the Society without regard to consi­ Law Commission, is too well known for me to recount. Les:; known are derations of party or creed or the political character of governments whose the work and overseas missions he undertook for the International Com­ actions may be under. review. mission of Jurists and, at the other end of the scale, the time he devoted 1 both in and out of office to answering personal letters and trying to We further declare it to be our intention that a fair representation of remedy injustice brought to his attention. He has remained a member of the main political parties be maintained on the Council in perpetuity and the Council and as a member of the Ilouse of Lords has been tireless in we enjoin our successors and all members of the Society to accept and pressing the Government to implement JUST[CE reports. fulfil this aim. We have suffered a most grievous loss through the untimely death of Bryan Anns, whom many of us regarded as a future chairman of JUSTrCE. He joined in 1958, asking what he could do to help. Two years later, TIed onJECTS him in a memorable and successful appeal to the Court of Appeal in London against a refusal of the Divisional Court to grant a writ of The objects of JUSTICE, as set out in the Constitution, are: habeus corpus in respect of a group of detainees in Northern Rhodesia. He had discovered a possible precedent for a writ to run to a protectorate to uphold and strengthen the principles of the Rule of Law in the terri­ and technical grounds on which to basc an application. He went to Africa tories for which the British Parliament is directly or ultimately responsible; twice to arrange the doculll:!ntation, and master-minded the whole in particular to assist in the maintenance of the highest standards of exercise. administration of justice and in the preservation of the fundamental He joined Lord Gardiner'S chambers and became actively involved liberties of the individual; in the work of JUSTrCE committees, particularly those concerned with criminal appeals, libel and contempt of court. His courage and enthusiasm to assist the International Commission of Jurists as and when requested were tempered by gentleness and sound judgment, and he never spared in giving help to peoples to whom the Rule of Law is denied and in himself when fighting to remedy an injustice. giving advice and encouragement to those who are seeking to secure the The year under review has not been an easy one. The enforced removal fundamental liberties of the individual; to more expensive ofJices has added to our financial difJiculties and severely limited the amount we can spend on staff at a time when more and to keep under review all aspects of the Rule of Law and to publish such more Illatters require attention. material as will be of assistance to lawyers in strengthening it; We have issued no mpjor reports since May of last year although two have been completed and will, we hope, be published in the near future. to co-operate with any national or international body which pursues the These are a critical study of the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner aforementioned objects. and a report in depth of the machinery for dealing with complaints against nationalized industries. Other committees are at work on special subjects but for two reasons the pattern of our work has inevitably undergone a change. First, a glance at the list of our publications at the end of this .Annual Report will show that over the years we have made recommendatlOos for reform in almost every area of law where existing procedures or lack of safeguards can lead to injustice. A gratifying number of them hav~ b~en implemented in whole or in part, but far too many have been lost SIght of or obstructed by those to whom they would have been unwelcome. It therefore seems sensible to devote more of our energies to pressing for the 2 3 -1'---- implementation of recommendations for which the need remains as great as ever than to new ventures which may never come to fruition. Report of the Council Secondly, our conunittees have become increasingly occupied in preparing memoranda of evidence to g01{Crnment committees and com­ HUMAN RIGHTS ments on working papers, \Vhite Papers, reports and parliamentary bills. During the year these have included the James Report on the Distribution It would be difficult to suggest that during the past year the protection of Criminal Business, the Heilbron Advisory Committee on Rape, the of Human Rights in the world at large has shown any significant-or even Police Bill, the Bail Bill, the Law Commission Working Paper on offences measurable-improvement. There are still millions of refugees, tens of relating to the administration of justice, the Community Land Act and thousands of prisoners who have never been tried, thousands of sufferers the Faulks Report on Defamation. from torture and ill-treatment, and untold numbers who lack justice in We have good reason to be satisfied with the report of the Devlin other ways. Pcrhaps we have reason for thankfulness that there seems to Committee, which was appointed shortly after the Luke Dougherty case. be a steady growth in the number and strength of people and organizations If its recommendations are accepted and strictly enforced, the danger of dedicated to the support of Human Rights in one way or another. As mistakcn identification should be considerably reduced, though by no investigations and publicity increase in scope and depth, so we see more means eliminated. We were the only body to maintain that evidence of clearly how bad the situation stilI is. Much of the world still pays only lip identity should be supported by evidence of another kind, and the report service to the international code of Human Rights, and the struggle to give accepts this in principle. Additionally it bears out aU we have been saying it reality must continue. over the years about the hazards of our pre-trial procedure and the There is no lack of demand for "rights", but the people who demand inadequacy of the remcdies for wrong convictions. them often seem to pay scant attention to their responsibility for ensuring We are also grateful that, less than a year after the publication of our the rights of others, and for limiting their own demands to what others report on bankruptcy, the Government has introduced the Insolvency Bill can afford to grant.