The Judicial Review held 13 & 14 March 2014 at the Royal Courts of Justice, London
читать дальше The Judicial Review, postponed from 26 November 2013, was again heard before Lady Justice Hallett, Mr Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Haddon-Cave.
The proceedings were not about where King Richard III should be buried but whether the defendants, the Secretary of State for Justice and the University of Leicester, had a duty at common law to consult about where and how the King’s remains should be reinterred.
The action had been brought by the Plantagenet Alliance, a group of fifteen collateral descendants of the king, who believed they should have been consulted and in August 2013 Mr Justice Haddon-Cave judged their case was arguable and granted permission for the proceedings.
The Alliance specifically challenged the decision of the Secretary of State for Justice who, on 3 September 2012, granted the Exhumation Licence without any consultation, their subsequent decision on 4 February 2013 not to re-visit the grant of the Licence after the identification of King Richard and the decision of the University on 4 February 2014 to begin making arrangements for the reinterment of the remains of the King in Leicester Cathedral.
Counsel for the Claimant, Gerard Clarke, spent Thursday morning making his submissions and outlined his thoughts on the type of consultation that could be undertaken and emphasised his client was only asking for the right to be consulted. Lady Justice Hallett and Mr Justice Ouseley frequently questioned Mr Clarke and in some instances pressed him for specific answers. Unfortunately some of Mr Clarke’s statements were considered dubious and which provoked a protest from the public gallery by Philippa Langley.
Lady Justice Hallett asked for a written statement from Philippa and the Judges retired for a short interval and on their return announced they would accept the statement but no further submissions would be allowed. Lady Justice Hallett graciously acknowledged that the Court was only sitting because of Philippa’s endeavours. Mr Clarke had not endeared himself to other Ricardians present when he referred to the Society as a ‘historical club’ despite our 90 years of historical research.
After lunch it was the turn of James Eadie QC on behalf of the Secretary of State for Justice. Mr Eadie dealt with five legal principals of common law and whether or not there was a duty for his client to consult. For an hour he cited case after case, precedent after precedent, point of law after point of law and appeared to demolish the Claimant’s case. He concluded that there was no statutory duty to consult, no promise to consult and no established practice to consult.
The final submission of the day was from Anya Proops on behalf of the University of Leicester. Ms Proops stated that the University should not have been named as a defendant and had no duty whatsoever to consult. She allowed that if there was a duty to consult it rested with the Secretary of State for Justice.
The final submission was made on Friday morning by Andrew Sharland QC on behalf of Leicester City Council. The Council had, as reported in the December Bulletin, applied to be an interested party in the Judicial Review and during the proceedings on 26 November they were made a third defendant and the Review was subsequently adjourned to await the new submissions but not before the City Council undertook to hold a consultation. In a surprise move a few weeks later the Council abandoned their undertaking to consult.
This was frustrating as the whole matter could have been concluded by a judgement after the November hearing and without the considerable extra costs of the present hearing. Lady Justice Hallett commented there would be monetary repercussions! Mr Sharland’s submission was that the City Council had no role in the reburial of King Richard. They had no statutory right to consult. The University of Leicester had the Licence and rights and they had been charged to keep the remains safely, privately and decently, which they had done.
As Counsel for the Claimant, Mr Clarke concluded the hearing with his response to the Defendants’ submissions and there was discussion with the Judges regarding who could be consulted and it was recorded, in no particular order, HM The Queen, the collateral descendants of King Richard, the Church of England, the Catholic Church, the citizens of Leicester and York, and those members of the public who were interested.
The proceedings were closed with the announcement by Lady Justice Hallett that they would consider the submissions and would hope to reach a judgement in the next four to six weeks. This is not an enviable task, especially considering the several hundred, if not thousands of pages of documents, contained in the lever arch files which sat in front of the several legal teams.
What might that judgement be? It would be wrong to speculate but perhaps just the observation that Mr Eadie’s defence was awesome in terms of legal precedent and point of law but at the end of the day the Judges are faced with an absolutely unprecedented, and probably unique occurrence, how and where do you reinter the remains of an anointed king of England? Perhaps you just throw out the rule book!
I would like to share one personal reflection after listening to the submissions and arguments. The Counsels’ for the Secretary of State for Justice, the University of Leicester and Leicester City Council all denied their clients’ duty to consult and yet, at one stage or another, they had all considered consultation!
I should perhaps mention that it would be challenging to provide a more in-depth summary of the Judicial Review due to the difficulties of hearing the speakers from the public area, the incessant and disruptive arrivals and departures of visitors to the public areas (although the opportunity to wander in and out of sitting courts is a wonderful facet of our heritage) and the fact that many of the submissions and arguments related to documents in the ‘bundles’ which the Counsels frequently referred to and which were, of course, not available to the general public.
Where does this leave the Society? In limbo for a while? We are no further behind than we were before the review resumed and we can now look forward to a possible conclusion to the legal arguments. After that, who knows? We continue to wait and see.
Wendy Moorhen