liadnan

The Court of Appeal has granted permission to claim judicial review of the refusal by the Government to hold an independent inquiry into the circumstances which led to the invasion of Iraq. R (Gentle & Others) v. Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Defence, and Attorney General [2005] EWHC 3119 (Admin.)

This is far from the end of the road of course, this is neither the Public Inquiry itself nor even the substantive JR hearing, merely leave for there to be a JR hearing into why there wasn't an inquiry (a stage designed, in theory, to weed out cases with no legal merit), and the Court hinted the chances of success were slim. Still, could be fun, and they are clearly going to have to consider legality of the war. The substantive hearing of the Review application is going to the same chamber of the CA, rather than back to the High Court, which is rather curious. Means that appeal against the outcome of the review itself will be straight to the Lords.

The applicants are relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq.