Shamima Begum court decision brings shame on UK | Letters

Readers respond to the supreme court decision that Begum will not have her citizenship restored

Every day it seems the Guardian serves up another reason for being ashamed to be British. On Friday, it was the case of Shamima Begum (Shamima Begum loses fight to restore UK citizenship after supreme court ruling, 26 February). It makes it particularly difficult that I’m tutoring someone who is hoping to take an A-level in British politics. All the books list human rights and explain how carefully protected they are in our system. Article 5 is supposed to protect the right to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention. Yet the supreme court is unable to protect Begum’s rights against a home secretary who is operating a policy based on pandering to public opinion in return for (hoped-for) votes.

We are told that legal protections are particularly important in difficult cases – that is, cases where an individual presents as unpleasant or undeserving. Begum was a teenager who took the extraordinary step of leaving her country to defend something she believed was deserving of her support. But even if she left with the firm intention of terrorising her fellow citizens, does this mean she should be deprived of her rights? It is a matter not of what Begum deserves but of what our national honour, and our constitution, deserve. This has been increasingly in doubt in recent years, with the government threatening to renege over the Northern Irish border agreement; not to mention the Chagos Islands and our participation in rendering citizens to be tortured during the “war on terror”.
Jeremy Cushing
Exeter

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Uber drivers are workers, UK supreme court rules

Decision means drivers will be entitled to basic rights such as paid holidays, say lawyers

The UK supreme court has dismissed Uber’s appeal against a landmark employment tribunal ruling that its drivers should be classed as workers with access to the minimum wage and paid holidays.

Six justices handed down a unanimous decision backing the October 2016 employment tribunal ruling that could affect millions of workers in the gig economy.

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Nigerians can bring claims against Shell in UK, supreme court rules

Ogale and Bille villagers say Shell oil operations have caused severe pollution including to their drinking water

Two Nigerian communities can bring their legal claims for a cleanup and for compensation against the oil company Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary in an English court, supreme court judges have said.

In what lawyers said was a “watershed moment” for the accountability of multinational companies, on Friday the court overturned a decision by the court of appeal, and ruled that the cases against Shell could proceed.

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‘McMafia’ banker’s wife will have £22m seized unless she reveals source of wealth

Supreme court upholds order against Zamira Hajiyeva, who spent £1m a year at Harrods

A woman who spent £1m a year at Harrods will be forced to give up her £15m home unless she reveals the source of her fortune following the UK’s first McMafia-style “dirty money” investigation.

Zamira Hajiyeva, the wife of a former boss of the Azerbaijani state bank jailed for fraud, has lost her final appeal against a court order forcing her to reveal how she came by so much money.

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Javid advised of ‘hostile public sentiment’ to Shamima Begum, court told

Officials told then home secretary that withdrawing Isis recruit’s citizenship would not hurt community relations, supreme court hears

Home Office officials declared “public sentiment is overwhelmingly hostile” to Shamima Begum and argued removing her British citizenship would not affect community relations when they advised Sajid Javid to act against her last year.

The then home secretary was formally advised that “the general feeling” was that the young woman, who travelled from east London to live under Isis in Syria aged 15, had “made her decision and must now live with it”.

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‘The American way’: Mitch McConnell defends Trump threat to challenge election results – video

‘We don’t know who won the presidential race yet,’ said Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell as he defended Trump’s threat to challenge election results in the supreme court, a statement that drew wide criticism.

McConnell on Wednesday said Trump should not be criticised for threatening to bring in his lawyers, adding the Biden campaign would do the same.

‘In a close election you can anticipate in some of these states you are going to end up in court, (it’s) the American way,’ McConnell said during a news conference in Louisville, Kentucky

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Gerry Adams urges ministers to act after court internment ruling

Ruling that ex-Sinn Féin leader was unlawfully detained in 1970s prompts call for other Troubles-era cases to be scrutinised

The legality of every internment during the Troubles will have to be scrutinised, the former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has urged, after his convictions for escaping from the Maze prison were quashed by the supreme court.

The unanimous decision of the UK’s highest court is likely to affect scores of claims from republicans and loyalists who are challenging their detention without trial during the 1970s.

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UK cooperation with US over two alleged Isis killers ruled unlawful

Supreme court says UK broke law because it did not get assurance that men would not face death penalty

The government’s decision to cooperate with US authorities over the prosecution of two alleged Islamic State executioners without assurances that they would not face the death penalty was unlawful, the supreme court has ruled.

In a unanimous judgment that will have repercussions for US-UK relations, the court’s seven justices said the home secretary’s agreement to provide evidence about El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey breached data protection rules.

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Lady Hale: ‘My Desert Island Judgments? Number one would probably be the prorogation case’

The ‘Beyoncé of the law’, who put a stop to Boris Johnson’s parliamentary suspension, talks equality, ego and spider brooches

In a year not short on drama, it was one of the great moments of 2019. After the Queen agreed to prorogue parliament for five weeks at Boris Johnson’s request, and after the English and Scottish courts could not agree whether the suspension was lawful, in September it was left to the supreme court to resolve the issue. And over the days of deliberation that followed, Brenda Hale came into her own. On 24 September, she announced the court’s blistering judgment: “The prime minister’s advice to her majesty was unlawful, void and of no effect… The prorogation was also void and of no effect. Parliament has not been prorogued.” Her tone was emphatic, delivered in an austere black dress with a huge silver spider brooch crawling up her right shoulder. The ruling delivered the ultimate slap down for Johnson; there was even talk that the prime minister might have to resign. MPs returned to work the following day.

For many outside the law, it was the first we had seen of Brenda Marjorie Hale, but already she had decades of experience as a glass-ceiling smasher. In 2004, she was made Britain’s first female law lord. In 2009, she became the first woman to serve on the UK’s new supreme court; in 2017, she became its first woman president. Already dubbed “the Beyoncé of the legal world”, after the prorogation ruling Baroness Hale of Richmond became a household name – a septuagenarian rock star. There were calls for the spider brooch to be given its own Twitter account, and fans could buy spider-brooch T-shirts and an illustrated children’s book celebrating Hale’s journey from Yorkshire schoolgirl to head of the UK’s highest court.

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Brexit: Parliament could remain suspended even if court finds against PM, government suggests – live news

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the final day of the supreme court hearing to determine if Boris Johnson’s five-week suspension of parliament was lawful

From Joshua Rozenberg, the legal commentator

It looks as if Lady Hale hopes to produce a reasonably complete judgment over the weekend representing the view of the court — or of a majority if they are split. Individual sections could be written by different justices. Much better than a bald decision with reasons to follow.

Joanna Cherry says she would like the court to be as clear as possible about what should happen next if it finds against the government. She said parliament should sit again as soon as possible.

At the moment parliament is not due to reconvene until three weeks on Monday, 14 October.

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Mother of parliaments shut down by father of lies, supreme court told

Scottish lawyer at prorogation hearing says Johnson government has proved itself unworthy of trust

Boris Johnson’s government is unworthy of trust because it conspired to ensure that “the mother of parliaments” was closed down by “the father of lies”, the supreme court was told in an impassioned speech by a Scottish advocate.

In combative closing comments, Aidan O’Neill QC called on the 11 justices hearing the prorogation case to reject legal arguments advanced by the government that the courts do not have the power to intervene in the decision to prorogue parliament for five weeks.

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Brexit: Supreme court resumes hearing to decide if Boris Johnson’s suspension of parliament lawful – live news

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including day two of the supreme court hearing to decide if Boris Johnson’s five-week suspension of parliament was lawful

Eadie says even Lord Pannick, who represents Gina Miller, accepts that it can be legitimate for the executive to obtain political advantage from prorogation.

If this is the case, how can a court decide what level of political advantage is acceptable, and what level is not.

Prorogation has been used by the government to gain a legislative and so political advantage. One of the most notable examples of that was its use to facilitate the speedy passage of what became the Parliament Act 1949. Under section 2 of the Parliament Act 1911 a non-money bill could only be enacted without the consent of the House of Lords if it was passed in three successive sessions by the House of Commons. In order to procure the speedy enactment of the 1949 Act the government arranged for a session of minimal length in 1948. Parliament was prorogued on 13 September 1948 to the following day. Following the passage of the parliament bill by the House of Commons, it was then prorogued again on 25 October 1948. Accordingly, even if the prorogation under consideration in the present case was, as the claimant and the interveners contend, designed to advance the government’s political agenda regarding withdrawal from the European Union rather than preparations for the Queen’s speech, that is not territory in which a court can enter with judicial review.

This is from the FT’s legal commentator, David Allen Green.

Interesting that there is now not even any lip-service at the Supreme Court that the prorogation was for a new Queen's Speech

Government submissions seem to be that the prorogation power stands, whatever its purpose and effect

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Zambians can pursue mining pollution claim in English courts

Villagers say mine run by subsidiary of UK-based firm has caused illness and deaths

Two thousand Zambian villagers who say their lives have been ruined by toxic runoff from the world’s second-largest opencast mine have won the right to pursue a claim through the English courts.

In a landmark judgment, the supreme court ruled that the mining conglomerate Vedanta Resources, which is based in London, and its Zambian subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) can be held to account by English judges, despite the companies’ arguments that they should defend themselves in Zambia.

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