Day 157 - 18 Jul 95 - Page 41


     
     1        remember that Parliament has decided that Legal Aid is not
     2        available for defamation proceedings, whether for
     3        Plaintiffs or for Defendants, to realise that it must be
     4        so, that there is no residual power to make an order for
     5        payment out of public funds for something as relatively
     6        insignificant as a daily transcript.
     7
     8        I say "relatively insignificant" because, by comparison
     9        with the provision of a full legal team appropriate to the
    10        circumstances of the case, which is what would be available
    11        under Legal Aid, the daily transcript is a relatively minor
    12        tool in the daily conduct of the case.
    13
    14        If Parliament thinks it (and continues to think it, as it
    15        does) inappropriate to provide for litigants in defamation
    16        proceedings to have legal representation at public expense,
    17        why, then it is inconceivable that the judge in court could
    18        have any power to cure what he might see as a minor
    19        disadvantage in the absence of daily transcripts.
    20
    21        My Lord, it is not certain, in our submission, that your
    22        Lordship's present circumstances in this case allow you to
    23        have regard to Article 6 of the European Convention on
    24        Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.  My Lord, there
    25        appear to be two circumstances in which there is
    26        permissible, according to the Court of Appeal in the
    27        Derbyshire County Council case.  The first is that English
    28        law is unclear on the question before the court, or else
    29        that it may appear to the court that English law is in
    30        conflict with any part of the convention.
    31
    32        My Lord, that said we have no interest in, as it were,
    33        skirting around any potential problems which might lie in
    34        relation to Article 6.  For that reason, I will, if I may,
    35        as briefly as possible, refer your Lordship to some
    36        provisions of the Convention and to some of the decisions
    37        which have been made under it.
    38
    39        I have copied the relevant parts of the Convention.  One
    40        sees from the back of it that the United Kingdom which,
    41        I think, ratified the treaty in March 1951, as your
    42        Lordship well knows, it is not yet -- whether it ever will
    43        be, I do not know -- part of the law of England which is
    44        why the courts are not obliged to have regard to it, except
    45        in the circumstances which I have alluded to.
    46
    47        My Lord, a convenient starting point is Article 25 which is
    48        on page 12, again French on the right-hand side, English on
    49        the left, towards the bottom of the page.
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:  There are some pages missing. 
    52 
    53   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, there are; you should have Article 25 there,
    54        however.
    55
    56   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, I do not.  In fact, I go from nine to 14.
    57
    58   MR. RAMPTON:  Has your Lordship got Article 27 there, at the top
    59        of page 14?
    60

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