Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 5) Rules 2013

Lord Pannick Excerpts

Monday 29th July 2013 Lords Chamber

We now have CMP. We owe it to the interests of justice to heed the warnings of such eminent judges as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Neuberger, Lord Sumption and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope, who is not in his place tonight, to ensure that the rules are as compatible as possible with this overriding interest. It is in that spirit that I move the amendment.

[Lord Pannick]

My Lords, during the passage of the Justice and Security Bill, I argued for stronger protections for open justice, as the noble and learned Lord may possibly recollect. This is not an appropriate occasion to revisit that battle, but there has, as the noble Lord, Lord Beecham, explained in his compelling speech, been one important recent development which is relevant to this debate on the contents of the rules now before the House. I refer to the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in the Bank Mellat case.

Your Lordships will know that, under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, the Treasury took measures to shut down the operations in this country of Bank Mellat, an Iranian commercial bank. The Supreme Court overturned that decision on procedural and substantive grounds. During the appeal to the Supreme Court, the Treasury asked the Supreme Court justices to hear part of the evidence in a closed session. By five votes to four, the Supreme Court agreed to do so. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Neuberger, the President of the Supreme Court, speaking for the majority, explained that,

“on instructions from his clients, counsel for the Treasury told us that a closed session could make a difference to the outcome of this appeal”.

Despite the court having what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Neuberger, described as “real misgivings”, the majority concluded that in the light of the submissions made on behalf of the Treasury, the court had to look at that material in a closed session. After looking at the material in a closed hearing, all the judges agreed that it made no difference to the issues in the case. The Supreme Court justices then made plain that they felt that they had been misled by the Treasury into allowing a wholly unnecessary closed hearing, about which all of them were uneasy, and which some of them thought was wrong in principle. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope of Craighead, said that the Treasury’s plea to the court to go into a closed hearing was,

“a misuse of the procedure”.

This is a very troubling episode.

It is particularly troubling because the noble and learned Lord and others assured noble Lords during the passage of the Bill that closed hearings would be sought only where strictly necessary. The Bank Mellat case demonstrates that, on that particular occasion, that principle was not respected in the highest court of the land. In the light of the criticism made by all nine judges of the Supreme Court of the request made by counsel for the Treasury for a closed hearing when, in the opinion of all the judges, there was no justification whatever for making such an application, will the noble and learned Lord tell the House what general guidance has been issued within the Treasury, within other government departments and to lawyers acting on behalf of the Government that in future they should be more careful to ensure that applications for closed hearings should be made only when there is a proper basis to do so?

The only benefit of this unhappy episode is that it led to some useful statements of principle by the Supreme Court which were designed to restrict the use of closed hearings in future cases. Can the noble and learned Lord assure the House that the statements of principle by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Neuberger, to which I am coming, are not overruled or undermined by anything in the rules now before the House for consideration? I should explain that I believe that that is the case; that is, that these rules must be interpreted and applied by reference to the principles set out by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Neuberger. That is one reason why I shall not oppose the rules today. However, I would very much like to hear the noble and learned Lord’s views on these points.

I shall identify the five central principles that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Neuberger, emphasised as important from a common law perspective. First, the noble and learned Lord said that any public High Court judgment must identify every conclusion which has been reached by reference to closed evidence. Will that remain the case under these rules? Secondly, he said that the open judgment must say as much as possible—consistent, of course, with national security—about the relevant closed material. As he noted,

“the more the judge can say about the closed material in the open judgment, the less likely it is that a closed hearing will be asked for”.

Are these rules consistent with that principle? Thirdly, he said that the court must consider whether it is possible to hear argument about the confidential material in open court without referring to any secret detail. Again, are these rules consistent with that basic principle? Fourthly, he said that advocates have a duty to the court to consider whether it really is necessary to ask the court to go into a closed hearing on an appeal. The same principle must apply, I think, to hearings in lower courts. Again, does the noble and learned Lord agree that this principle will apply under these rules? Fifthly, and finally, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Neuberger, for the Supreme Court expressly agreed with the comment of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope of Craighead, that judges,

“must be astute not to allow the system [of closed hearings] to be over-used by those in charge of that material”.

Does the noble and learned Lord agree that this principle is also applicable under the rules that we are now debating?

Each of these five principles identified by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Neuberger, is designed to ensure that, because of the vital interest of open justice, closed hearings should occur only when, and to the extent that, they are strictly necessary. My view is that these principles remain valid in relation to decisions under these rules. If the noble and learned Lord thinks otherwise, will he please so indicate to the House and explain why?