Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> International and UK Law

Legal News

: International and UK Law

The Water Cooler

* The law lords rarely make personal comments but Baroness Hale of Richmond, the only woman among them, is not averse to doing so — and they add a welcome human touch. Her latest was in the decision in which the House of Lords upheld the Serious Fraud Office’s halting of its corruption inquiry into the BAE Systems arms deal with Saudi Arabia. She said: “I confess that I would have liked to be able to uphold the decision . . . of the Divisional Court. It is extremely distasteful that an independent public official should feel himself obliged to give way to threats of any sort . . . The great British public may still believe that it was the risk to British commercial interests that caused him to give way, but the evidence is quite clear that this was not so.” She goes on: “Although I would wish that the world were a better place where honest and conscientious public servants were not put in impossible situations such as this, I agree that decision was lawful.”

Full post as published by International and UK Law on August 04, 2008 (boomark / email).