A law of gravity
THERE are some offences so grave that, when they are suspected, the rules have to go by the board. Treason? Terror? Mur- der? No. Insider trading, or running a slush fund, or pulling the wool over shareholders' eyes? By all means. Once an official inquiry is ordered, the inspectors can summon wit- nesses, ask them what questions they like, make their advisers keep silent, open up their private lives, and force them to answer on pain of imprisonment. These answers can then be used as evidence against them in the courts. Lord Chief Jus- tice Taylor memorably called this an excep- tion made by Parliament to a fundamental principle of English law. Now the European Court of Human Rights, hearing an appeal in the Guinness affair, has struck down the exception and upheld the principle. It deserves its vindication.
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