Closed Material Procedures (CMPs) Heard of them?

[erebus]

Secret courts are designed to protect national security by preventing confidential information from being exposed. This can mean whatever an authority wishes tit to mean, and as for how it can be interpreted and expanded in the future, is not considered a valid point.

 

Closed Material Procedures essentially allow the Government to present evidence to a judge without having to disclose it to the whole court, including the defendant or claimant (depending on whether it’s a criminal or civil trial).

Originally devised for application in the immigration system and first introduced in 1997, they are a mechanism currently used in certain types of specialist proceedings and only in a very small number of cases.

It proposes that the law should be changed so that where a Minister decides that certain material, if openly disclosed, would cause damage to the interests of national security, he or she can trigger the use of CMP by application to the court. This means the material will not be disclosed to the other side, yet the Government will be allowed to put the material before a judge and rely on it in defending or pursuing a claim through the courts.

Being able to present evidence to a judge without the other side having the chance to refute it or even know what it is obviously gives the Government a huge advantage in legal proceedings and the potential to present a very one-sided or misleading version of events.

 

So this sanctions perpetual wars, perpetual detention, where government and corporate interests are sacrosanct. It is the beginning of a process, legalizes repression, laying the foundations for a police state if required. People can now disappear, they have no defense. In the Inquisition people were accused of crimes, the evidence was irrefutable, the people were guilty, sanctioning mass torture and murder. Welcome to the modern interpretation of Dark Age practices.

[saunaman]

Was aware of the possibility of CMPs last year , not a very reassuring prospect for democracy !

 

Whilst on the subject of democracy , I must say that I am deeply suspicious about the first failed Vicky Pryce trial on the basis that the jury were "incompetent". I suspect this is just a part of the steady "drip drip drip" approach to undermining our confidence in the jury system .

 

This case could not have had a higher public profile , such was the build-up to it . Don't try and tell me that this was the first multi-cultural jury in this entire country who have ever failed to deliver a verdict or been dismissed ?

 

Could it have been a set-up - firstly , to discredit multicultural juries and secondly , to discredit the entire jury system as not being fit for purpose ?

 

Sorry if I'm not focusing on the "on-stage drama" that was the Huhnes' bitter affairs , but then again I was always the "prompter" at school plays and consequently more aware of what went on backstage ( also too ugly to put on a stage )

[Anna B]

Secret courts are designed to protect national security by preventing confidential information from being exposed. This can mean whatever an authority wishes tit to mean, and as for how it can be interpreted and expanded in the future, is not considered a valid point.

 

Closed Material Procedures essentially allow the Government to present evidence to a judge without having to disclose it to the whole court, including the defendant or claimant (depending on whether it’s a criminal or civil trial).

Originally devised for application in the immigration system and first introduced in 1997, they are a mechanism currently used in certain types of specialist proceedings and only in a very small number of cases.

It proposes that the law should be changed so that where a Minister decides that certain material, if openly disclosed, would cause damage to the interests of national security, he or she can trigger the use of CMP by application to the court. This means the material will not be disclosed to the other side, yet the Government will be allowed to put the material before a judge and rely on it in defending or pursuing a claim through the courts.

Being able to present evidence to a judge without the other side having the chance to refute it or even know what it is obviously gives the Government a huge advantage in legal proceedings and the potential to present a very one-sided or misleading version of events.

 

So this sanctions perpetual wars, perpetual detention, where government and corporate interests are sacrosanct. It is the beginning of a process, legalizes repression, laying the foundations for a police state if required. People can now disappear, they have no defense. In the Inquisition people were accused of crimes, the evidence was irrefutable, the people were guilty, sanctioning mass torture and murder. Welcome to the modern interpretation of Dark Age practices.

 

 

 

Yes, I've heard about them and am extremely disturbed at the prospect.

 

Once again, however, it seems to have passed the general population by - but then how could they stop it if they wanted to?

 

Governments have now become a law unto themselves, and no longer need the approval of the people they are supposed to represent. They treat them with utter contempt. This law will allow them to do so with even more unaccountability. Alongside the muzzling of the press following Leveson, they've got things sewn up nicely.