Page 151 - Deception at work all chapters EBook

152 Deception at Work

In accordance with Article 53 of the Convention, the contracting states undertake to abide
by the decisions of the Court. To date, states that have been ordered to make payments under
Article 50 have consistently done so.

A finding by the Court of a violation of the Convention has often led the respondent state,
and sometimes even other contracting states, to take general measures to comply. The Regula-
tion of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (see page [xref]) is an example of domestic laws being
changed by European court decisions.

There are six points to note with decisions by the European Court of Human Rights:

• it takes years to get a case dealt with by the court: fast it is not;
• the judges assigned, usually mob handed, to any case have seldom agreed unanimously on

anything: consistent it is not;
• the compensation imposed has been minimal;
• there are no criminal penalties for violations of human rights;
• it has avoided taking tricky decisions, like to what extent (under Article 8(2)) people are

entitled to privacy at work.

Finally, lawyers and smelly socks engaged in the human rights area seem to have ignored all
of the cases where the European Court has ruled in favour of law enforcement.

A FORGOTTEN CASE decided that people lost their rights to
privacy when they engaged on a course of
A classic example is the case of LUDI v criminal conduct.
Switzerland (17/1991/269/340: see http:
//hudoc.echr.coe.int/hudoc) where it was

The European Court may be a dead sheep, but it is not an ass.

Details on the Convention
There are 59 Articles in the Convention, but those of interest in the corporate fraud and area
are:

Article 6 – Right to a fair trial
1. In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against
him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an in-
dependent and impartial tribunal established by law. Judgement shall be pronounced
publicly but the press and public may be excluded from all or part of the trial in the
interests of morals, public order or national security in a democratic society, where
the interests of juveniles or the protection of the private life of the parties so require,
or to the extent strictly necessary in the opinion of the court in special circumstances
where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice.
2. Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved
guilty according to law.
3. Everyone charged with a criminal offence has the following minimum rights:
(a) to be informed promptly, in a language which he understands and in detail, of the
nature and cause of the accusation against him;
(b) to have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence;