News
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The Manx Court reviews the approach to be adopted in a doleance – Manx equivalent to Judicial Review – Petition
In a Judgment delivered on 17th July 2006, His Honour the Deemster Kerruish dealt with the Amended Petition of Benno Paul Hafner, a Swiss lawyer, who looked to challenge the exercise of a statutory discretion, on the part of the Attorney General for the Isle of Man in issuing an Application seeking a Summons in terms of Section 21, of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 (of Tynwald) to require the examination of witnesses and the production of documents from corporate service providers, in the Isle of Man, pursuant to an ongoing criminal investigation in Australia into the affairs of several individuals affairs, in Australia, and alleged contraventions of certain Australian Securities and Investment legislation during the course of 1991 – 1995.
In a detailed Judgment, the Court in reviewing the several basis for the challenge referred to several well known English and EWHC decisions, the Court reviewed the basis for the disclosure of the actual underlying Letter of Request from the requesting Australian Securities and Investment Commission, including the relevance of similar request being made in several other jurisdictions, as well as the Isle of Man, the nature and breadth of questions being put to the potential witnesses in the Isle of Man, the death of one of the parties under initial investigation in Australia, and the time upon which the Court needs to review the exercise of the Attorney General’s decision when an application is made in terms of Section 21 of the Act.
The Court also reviewed arguments in terms of Article 8 and Article 1 of Protocol 1, of the ECHW, having been satisfied that the provisions of the Convention have engaged, notwithstanding but the Isle of Man Human Rights Act is not to be enlivened until November of 2006.
