European Human Rights Court Finds Against Britain in McLibel Suit

Large Steaming Pile.

The European Human Rights Court somehow has made this a human rights case. Boy that is a serious stretch. They stated that Britain violated there human rights because it doesn't provide for legal representation for libel suits.

In its ruling, the court said the denial of state legal aid to the defendants, a part-time barmaid and an unemployed single father, had skewed the case from the start.

"The denial of legal aid to the applicants had deprived them of the opportunity to present their case effectively before the court and contributed to an unacceptable inequality of arms with McDonald's," it wrote.

The ruling also argued there was "a strong public interest in enabling such groups and individuals outside the mainstream to contribute to the public debate."

Public Debate? Are you saying that libel is now a valid part of public debate? I don't see how representation could have changed the facts that what they were putting out was untrue.

Looks like another good reason to avoid any european court. With this style of socialist bent findings, I'd say that they are tampering in areas that have nothing to do with human rights. The basic meddling in the basic governmental workings of a major democracy is troubling. This is much worse than the activist judges in this country.

Where does this lead to next? Most probably that the government of Great Britain would have to provide council equivalent to that used by McDonald's, irrelevant of cost or detrimental effect on the court system of the country.