Wednesday 17 December 2008

Open Justice

The opening up of the family courts is greatly to be welcomed.

Like convictions on anonymous evidence alone, like both pre-trial convictions and pre-trial acquittals by the Crown Prosecution Service, and like the anonymity of adult accusers in rape cases, the secrecy of the family courts violates the absolute principle that ours is an open system of justice.

Away with them all.

4 comments:

  1. Presumably you'd agree that there are times when hearings should be held in secret, to protect the children involved.

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  2. Like the youth justice system, then.

    Of course, that's not what you mean. You mean "to protect the social workers involved" from proper scrutiny. We all know where that ends up.

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  3. No, I really do mean to protect the children. Sometimes it's wrong to identify them.

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  4. Like the youth justice system, then.

    ReplyDelete