Welcome! I am an independent Q.C. and not part of the government machine. I am tasked with reviewing the operation of the United Kingdom’s anti-terrorism laws. Where I am critical, I recommend change. My reports and recommendations are submitted to ministers and laid before Parliament.
As reviewer I have a very high degree of access both to classified documents and to those most closely involved with defence against terrorism: Read more…
Surprising requests arrive from time to time, few more mystifying than the invitation to give evidence to the parliamentary committee set up to consider the draft Modern Slavery Bill. Human trafficking, forced labour, slavery and domestic servitude are problems fully comparable in their seriousness to terrorism – but no one who knew anything about them would trouble to solicit my views on the subject.
On closer inspection, however, the invitation made perfect sense. It related to the proposed office of Anti-Slavery Commissioner and how, specifically, its independence should be guaranteed. Read more…
I spoke last night, at the invitation of the Statute Law Society, on the role of the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation.
The talk was drawn from a working paper, now posted on the SSRN site. Read more…
The long-awaited judgment in the judicial review proceedings brought by David Miranda will be handed down in London on Wednesday 19 February at 10 am. The case was brought in August, expedited by the High Court and argued over three days in early November. The court (Laws LJ, Ouseley J and Openshaw J) will decide whether the police acted lawfully in detaining Mr Miranda  as he made his way through Heathrow Airport carrying a large quantity of classified electronic documents. Read more…
The reports of independent reviewers from Lord Shackleton (1978) to John Rowe Q.C. (2001), together with Government responses, can be found on this external site.  The reports are in UK copyright libraries but most of them became available on the internet only in 2014, thanks to Mitch Hanley and a grant from Harvard University.
The draft Modern Slavery Bill makes provision for an Anti-Slavery Commissioner.
I gave evidence with John Vine CBE QPM to the Joint Bill Committee on 6 March 2014 on how the independence of such a figure might be ensured. There were questions on methods of appointment of reviewers and their staff, definition of reviewers’ functions, responsbility for the omission of material sensitive on national security grounds and the duty on public authorities to co-operate. I introduced the Committee to the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Act 2010, which establishes the equivalent office to mine in Australia.
Video record of the 45-minute session is here; transcript will follow on this site.
A fuller post on the reviewers’ independence is here. I welcome all comments on the issues raised.
To mark the end of my first three-year term as Independent Reviewer, I spoke to the Statute Law Society on 24 February 2014 about the history, functions and influence of the Independent Reviewer.
The talk was taken from a working paper published on SSRN. It closes with two case studies (concerning, respectively, secret evidence and port powers) which show how the Independent Reviewer’s influence may work in conjunction with that of others, including Parliament and the courts.
The paper will form the basis of an article to be submitted for publication in the July 2014 edition of Public Law.