“The case related to steps taken by the Home Secretary and the National Crime Agency in actioning a request for Mutual Legal Assistance from the US Department of Justice. It prompted the court to give consideration to whether particular safeguards are required when conducting a closed hearing in respect of material which attracts public interest immunity, specifically in this case the appointment of a special advocate. It also led the court to map out what it described as a hierarchy of proceedings, with applications affecting the liberty of the subject at the top and applications relating to search and seizure warrants towards the bottom of this so-called hierarchy. All talk of an Englishman’s home being his castle now seems to belong to a dim and distant past ...”
ADDED Friday 16th October 2020
