When draconian new laws are developed in haste by frightened governments reacting to international criminals, society depends on the thin red line of its judges for the delivery of real justice. One of the great jurists, who helped advance human rights worldwide, died last month.
Top British jurist dies
A man described as “the greatest English judge of the modern era”, Tom Bingham, who saw judicial independence as essential to the protection of human rights, died last month.
On torture for example, Lord Bingham of Cornhill concluded that the “principles of the common law Š compel the exclusion of third-party torture evidence as unreliable, unfair, offensive to ordinary standards of humanity and decency and incompatible with the principles which should animate a tribunal seeking to administer justice”. These principles did not stand alone, and effect also had to be given to the European Convention on Human Rights, which took account of the consensus embodied in the 1984 Convention against Torture Convention.
“The answer to the central question posed at the outset,” he wrote, referring to the admissibility of evidence that may have been obtained by torture, “is to be found not in a governmental policy, which may change, but in law.” This judgment resonated around the world, a considerable influence against the will of certain governments to unshackle themselves from the constraints of human rights norms put in place after World War 2.
His lectures and writings, and in particular his last book, The Rule of Law, published at the start of 2010, are treated as seminal texts.
Thomas Henry Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill, jurist and lawyer, born 13 October 1933; died 11 September 2010
– obituary by Philippe Sands, guardian.co.uk, Sat 11 Sept 2010