I want to write to Adam Tomkins
Adam Tomkins: ..., and the Justice Committee did not think so, either. In its stage 1 report, the committee reached the following unanimous conclusion: “The Committee believes that there should not be an absolute defence against prosecution based on whether someone was inside a dwelling or not when it comes to words expressed, behaviour or the display of written material. However, care also needs to be...
Adam Tomkins: ..., but it should in no sense freeze its on-going development in the case law of the courts. The single most important and liberalising reform to defamation in recent years—the creation of the new defence of publication in the public interest in the Reynolds case—came in case law and not in statute. I welcome the bill and will support it at decision time this evening. I do so in both the...
Adam Tomkins: ...the fact that Mr Paterson told us that the problem is fairly common, the most recent year for which statistics are available suggests that only two post mortem examinations were requested by the defence—only two in an entire year. That does not lessen the very real anguish that a family might have to endure in any particular case in which the body of the deceased cannot be released....
Adam Tomkins: ...likely to suffer financial loss, whereas that is not always a requirement in defamation cases. There is one striking omission in how the bill deals with malicious publication: it says nothing about defences. One of the most attractive aspects of the bill is the way it modernises defences in the law of defamation in sections 5 to 7. However, in stark contrast, the bill is silent on defences...
Adam Tomkins: ...defeat its causes and to manage its consequences. When I say “we”, I do not mean only the Government; I mean all of us. Every citizen has a duty to do what is needed—in the old language, in defence of the realm. In short, all of us do what we need to do for the public good. All that applies only if there is a genuine emergency. Unfortunately, we are all too familiar with Governments...
Adam Tomkins: ...day’ means the day that the United Kingdom leaves the EU.” That is entirely appropriate, that is how it should be and nothing more needs to be said. Contrary to what Mr McKee has just said in defence of amendment 58, his amendment would complicate the matter unnecessarily; it would make the matter less clear and not more clear. All that needs to be said is what is currently said in...
Adam Tomkins: ...’s trial in Jerusalem. Eichmann was a Nazi lieutenant-colonel in the SS who had played a major role in organising the Holocaust. He was hanged for war crimes in 1962. At his trial, Eichmann’s defence was that he was simply obeying orders, that he was a fully law-abiding citizen doing his job. He was motivated, he said, not by a hatred for the Jewish people but by duty. It was his duty...