Special Advocates, Control Orders and the Right to a Fair Trial

In Secretary of State for the Home Department v AF (No 3), the House of Lords decided that Article 6 ECHR requires a ‘core irreducible minimum’ of procedural fairness such that ‘the controlled person must be given sufficient information about the allegations against him to give effective instructions to the Special Advocate’. This case-note will discuss the challenges facing Special Advocates in control order proceedings and the impact AF may have on the measure of procedural fairness owed to individuals in closed proceedings. It will also address the judicial use of sections 2 and 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 in arriving at the outcome in AF.