Against secret evidence

The government's Criminal Justice Reform Bill has been reported back [PDF] from select committee. Much of the bill, dealing with the introduction of home detention as a criminal sentence and a shift in the balance between parole and overall sentence length is unobjectionable. But the committee has made a major change in allowing parole boards to hear secret evidence in deciding applications. This not only pisses in the face of the right to natural justice affirmed in the BORA - it also attacks one of the bedrock principles of our legal system: the principle of audi alteram partem or "hearing both sides". And this is absolutely vital in order for our adversarial system to function properly. Discarding it will allow "evidence" to be introduced without being properly tested, and without giving the person it affects any chance to explain it. We have only to look at the Ahmed Zaoui case, or the US's kangaroo courts in Guantanamo Bay to see the parody of justice results.

If we want out justice system to actually deliver justice, then it is vital we protect the rights of those subject to it to effectively challenge the evidence against them. Otherwise we don't so much have a justice system as an organised lynchmob.