Thursday 28 October 2010

Scottish Practice Contrary to Salduz Requirements

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has recently issued its decision in the case of Cadder v. H.M. Advocate. It concerns the compatibility of Scottish law with the Salduz v. Turkey judgment of the Grand Chamber of the European Court (see my earlier short post here). Thusfar, Scottish police officers were allowed to question suspects for six hours before they were given access to a lawyer. In the Cadder case the Supreme Court decided, on the basis of Salduz, that this was contrary to the requirements of the ECHR. For the judgment itself plus a short introduction, see this recent post on Lallands Peat Worrier (thanks for the reference!).