Day 157 - 18 Jul 95 - Page 44
1 and are already recorded in the transcripts which the
2 Defendants have.
3
4 One goes forwards from there, my Lord, some 14 years to an
5 application made by these very Defendants to the European
6 Court, May 1993; an application made by these Defendants to
7 the European Commission, complaining, amongst other things,
8 that the failure -- my Lord, there is no usher; can I ask
9 Mrs. Brinley-Codd to do the job?
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
12
13 MS. STEEL: We have not actually got a copy.
14
15 MR. RAMPTON: It is coming. My Lord, there does not seem to be
16 a spare so I am afraid they will have to share just for
17 once.
18
19 S & M on the left hand page, my Lord, CD 172. My Lord,
20 this is a record of the EHRRCD stands for, we believe,
21 European Human Rights Reports Commission Digest. These
22 Defendants made an application to the European Court on the
23 grounds, inter alia, that the failure of the United Kingdom
24 to provide legal aid for defamation proceedings constituted
25 a breach of Article 6, 6.1, on the basis that it denied
26 them proper access to justice, to put it in summary form,
27 and also, amongst other things, on the ground that it was a
28 breach of Article 14, given the relative disparity and
29 resources between themselves and McDonald's.
30
31 That, my Lord, as your Lordship will remember, is the
32 property or status article.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
35
36 MR. RAMPTON: Before I ask your Lordship to look at that
37 report -----
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I notice the first line of the facts.
40
41 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, I noticed that too. I say nothing about that
42 at this stage.
43
44 MS. STEEL: Just for the record, it was not us that said it.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I assume that was a misreporting ---
47
48 MS. STEEL: Yes.
49
50 MR. RAMPTON: I have a copy of the application which the
51 Defendants made.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- and that it was not part of the
54 Applicants' case that they did produce a leaflet.
55
56 MR. RAMPTON: No, it is not actually admitted in the application
57 itself. What was said before the court, of course, I do
58 not know because I was not there -- or, rather, the
59 Commission.
60
