THE GUARDIAN: Britain's most senior judge Lord Neuberger says policy would mean pulling out of UN and European court of human rights
Britain will have to withdraw from the United Nations as well as the European court of human rights if it wants to deport terrorist suspects to states that carry out torture, the country's most senior judge has warned.
In his first interview since becoming president of the supreme court, Lord Neuberger launched a sustained attack on "slanted" coverage and "one-sided" portrayals that misrepresent the way the human rights court operates.
The UK's supreme court is "not subservient" but works "in a dialogue" with the judges in Strasbourg, he insisted. Pulling out of the Council of Europe body – which the home secretary, Theresa May, and the justice secretary, Chris Grayling, both contemplate – would "certainly send an unfortunate number of messages", Neuberger added.
The judge's comments, timed for publication on Tuesday, were made before the two ministers' views were published in Sunday papers. Neuberger also talked about the lack of diversity in the upper reaches of the judiciary, suggesting that appointment panels could be suffering from a "subconscious bias" against women.
"Human rights excite great emotion," the 65-year-old judge said. "The concerns that people have about human rights are, generally speaking, exaggerated … [although] sometimes courts get it wrong. » | Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent | Tuesday, March 05, 2013
GUARDIAN EDITORAL: Human rights laws: supremely serious judgment: The Tories are living in a fantasy land if they think lawmaking in their Little England could ignore international human rights » | Tuesday, March 05, 2013
