The Government has announced that prospective judges will no longer have to declare if they are Freemasons. The policy reversal was announced by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, after a threat of legal action forced a review. He said that it would be “disproportionate” to continue with the practice. The United Grand Lodge of England [...]

The European Court of Human Rights, by four votes to three, has decided that the Russian judge, Olga Kudeshkina, was the victim of a breach of her right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights when she made public comments about Russian courts and the independence of the [...]

Last week,the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg unanimously decided that the indefinite retention of DNA tissue samples, DNA profiles and fingerprints by the police, even when people are not charged or found not guilty of an alleged crime, is a breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The facts [...]