Moore-Bick J discussed the principle of open justice, saying that the highest importance was to be attached to the principle and that it was for that reason that in ‘all but exceptional cases’ hearings are conducted in public, judgment is delivered in public and proceedings can be freely reported: ‘It could be argued that the principle of open justice demands that the court records be open to all and sundry as a right in order to enable anyone who wishes to do so to satisfy himself that justice was done in any given case. But that has never been the law and it is not what r 5.4 says. I accept that the line of authority on the principle of open justice was not specifically drawn to the attention of Nicholls V-C in Dobson v Hastings, but I am unable to accept that he was not well aware of it. It clearly did not strike him as odd, however, that the court’s permission should be required in order to obtain access to the record. The principle of open justice is primarily concerned with monitoring the decision-making process as it takes place, not with reviewing the process long after the event.’ He continued, saying that if a non-party simply seeks permission to use the court file as a source of potentially useful information, the principle of open justice is not engaged.
Moore-Bick J
[2005] 1 WLR 2951
Civil Procedure Rules 5.4
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – ABC Ltd v Y ChD 6-Dec-2010
There had been proceedings as to the misuse of confidential information. X, a non-party, now sought disclosure of papers used in that case. The case had been settled by means of a Tomlin Schedule, and that, subject to further order, non-parties . .
Cited – James-Bowen and Others v Commissioner of Police of The Metropolis SC 25-Jul-2018
The Court was asked whether the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (‘the Commissioner’) owes a duty to her officers, in the conduct of proceedings against her based on their alleged misconduct, to take reasonable care to protect them from . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 August 2021; Ref: scu.535111
