576 / 736
The loophole exists because the offender in each
case may not, in fact, be the owner of the car. The
car may be on loan or hired and since it is the
owner who is summoned the words "you did park"
are incorrect in many cases.
The practice of
summonsing
the
registered
owners of cars has been a thorn in the side of the
hire-car companies because often they do not know
that a £1 ticket has been issued until they get a
summons which may cost them £5 in court.
The only way, however, the actual offender can
be prosecuted is when his name and address is
taken at the time of the offence. This occurs very
rarely.
The question now is : How many offenders will
get off before the Gardai decide to change the
wording of the summonses. It's good luck for
motorists anyway.
[Irish Independent,
3 November 1970]
LIBEL CASE DECLINED BY JUDGE
Because a trial judge found that he was person
ally acquainted with some of the people concerned
in a libel case he was due to hear—and his fear
that justice might not be done—a High Court
action came to a standstill yesterday.
It was the first time, said old legal hands of
more than forty years' experience in the High
Court, that such a situation had arisen.
Overnight, Mr. Justice John Stephenson, told
by High Court administrators that he was to hear
the issue, saw the legal papers in the case and
immediately ruled that he should be taken off it.
He realised he was acquainted with certain people
involved in the case.
Another High Court judge, who was free to
hear the case, also looked at the legal papers and
found himself in the same position. All other High
Court judges were engaged in other cases.
The parties involved, when told of the unusual
position in which the law found itself, immedi
ately agreed to an adjournment of the case.
The case to be heard before a judge and jury,
will now be heard on Thursday.
It is a libel action brought by the Church of
Scientology against Mr. Geoffrey Johnson Smith,
M.P. for East Grinstead.
Although in High Court history there has not
been an exactly similar case—such as that which
brought justice to a halt yesterday—:there have
been cases where a judge has confessed, at the
start of a case, that he had some indirect knowl
edge of the issues involved.
[Daily Telegraph,
4 November 1970]
Note—
It will be realised that the remarks of
the President of the High Court to the effect that
he would be reluctant to try some of the accused
in the Arms Conspiracy Trial (who were subse
quently acquitted) were not so unusual as
to
warrant the newspaper comments which ensued.
BRITAIN BROKE HUMAN RIGHTS,
SAY AFRICAN ASIANS
Claims by thirty-one East African Asians that
the British Government broke
the European
Convention on Human Rights, by refusing them
admission
to Britain, are
to open before
the
European Human Rights Commission
in Stras
bourg.
At the four-day secret hearing, lawyers acting
for the Asians who are mostly British passport-
holders and United Kingdom citizens, succeeded
in establishing that there was a
prima facie
breach
of the convention which requires further investiga
tion by the commission.
Some of the applicants were claiming that the
conduct of the British authorities amounted to
"inhumane and degrading treatment" contrary to
Article 3 of the Convention.
Others claimed that there had been a breach of
Article 8 which guarantees respect for family life.
A number have invoked Article 14 which pro
vides that the rights and freedoms of the conven
tion should be secured without discrimination.
All have applied to the commission for legal aid.
Thirty of the applicants were represented by
Sir Dingle Foot, Q.C., the former Labour Solicitor-
General, and Sir Arthur Driver, President of the
Law Society in 1961.
They faced a strong contingent of barristers
appearing for the British Government.
The claims arose out of the Commonwealth
Immigrants Act, 1968, which deprived East African
Asians with United Kingdom citizenship and
British passports of the automatic right to set up
home in Britain.
Twenty-one of the applicants were detained by
the British authorities when they tried to enter
Britain from Kenya. They told the commission
that the Kenyan Government would not allow
them to return to Kenya and that it would be
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