a roll of the dice

This interesting rant on The Road to Surfdom kindly makes the point that not all lawyers are evil - just the ones who consistently seek to undermine the legal process for political gains. Others, such as Dr Haneef’s lawyer Stephen Keim QC, are courageous and prepared to take real risks in the pursuit of justice.

The post has some choice quotes from the Government which is currently attempting to frustrate the grant of bail to Dr Haneef by bringing into play the opaque and hard-to-appeal migration system. Apparently the leaking of information which strongly suggests that the case against Haneef is limited at best is an appalling act which undermines his prospects of a fair trial:

Whoever’s responsible for this is trying to frustrate the process and it should be condemned.

Says the PM. And no, he’s not talking about using the Migration Act to detain someone who has been set free by the courts after a hearing at which the Government had the opportunity to present evidence as to why continued imprisonment is justified.

Another sometimes-courageous lawyer I am reminded of is Julian Burnside QC - rg has a post about his latest efforts here. He is certainly not averse to a bit of publicity, but Mr Burnside is a consistently powerful advocate for some of the essential principles of law which underpin a real democracy, and which are threatened by events such as the Haneef saga. You can read his arguments about the Haneef issue here at The Age (Burnside’s own page is here).

Finally, there’s a good bit of discussion of the actual (and reprehensible) criminal law under which Haneef has been charged over at the Legal Soapbox.