Editorial: The ruling that Gerry Adams must get damages illustrates the legacy scandal

The late Lord Kerr, former lord chief justice (LCJ) of Northern Ireland, was a highly respected legal figure.​ ​A career at the bar was followed by his early elevation to the bench, then promotion to LCJ and later the UK Supreme Court.

On this page the human rights activist Jeff Dudgeon (see link below), who has long challenged the way that human rights law has been appropriated by terrorists and their apologists, raises some bad Supreme Court rulings relating to the legacy of terror in Northern Ireland, in which Lord Kerr was author. His legacy ruling which provoked most uproar was one that found that Gerry Adams’ internment in 1973 had not been considered by the then NI secretary, William Whitelaw and thus was unlawful. The ruling caused alarm in political and legal worlds, because the then legislation specifically allowed for detention to be signed by someone such as David (now Lord) Howell, then a junior NIO minister.

Lord Sumption, who earlier served on the Supreme Court, said his one-time colleagues had left “the law in a shapeless mess” and opened the door to “countless” damages claims. Lord Howell, said the court showed a "total misunderstanding” of government ways of operating. Lord Butler of Brockwell, ex UK civil service head, demanded the ruling “be overturned by urgent legislation" as did the legal experts Prof Richard Ekins and Sir Stephen Laws.

Trevor Ringland wrote in this newspaper (see link below) that the the ruling walked on graves of judges murdered by IRA. Doug Beattie demanded an inquiry into Sinn Fein’s relationships with the IRA. Yesterday’s ruling by Mr Justice Colton, in effect ordering damages for Adams, makes the situation worse. It is the latest illustration of the legacy scandal, in which truth, decency and justice has been turned on its head, and which this newspaper has documented for years.

• Jeff Dudgeon letter on the need to quash the Supreme Court ruling (see within it links to other outraged responses in 2020 such as Trevor Ringland and an Oxford law professor)