“A closed material procedure was defined by Lord Neuberger in Bank Mellat v Her Majesty’s Treasury (No 1) [2013] UKSC 38, [2014] AC 700 (Bank Mellat (No 1)) as:
[1] … A closed material procedure involves the production of material which is so confidential and sensitive that it requires the court not only to sit in private, but to sit in a closed hearing (ie a hearing at which the court considers the material and hears submissions about it without one of the parties to the appeal seeing the material or being present), and to contemplate giving a partly closed judgment (ie a judgment part of which will not be seen by one of the parties).
In Al Rawi & Ors v The Security Service & Ors [2011] UKSC 34 [2012] AC 531 the Supreme Court held that the common law would not permit a closed material procedure. Such procedures can only be set up by express statutory provision (the Bank Mellat case proceeded under Counter-Terrorism Act 2008). European Convention 1950 and the right to a fair trial does not prevent closed material procedures, provided strict conditions are met. Lord Neuberger summarised those conditions in Bank Mellat (No 1) as follows:”
Closed material procedures
A closed material procedure was defined by Lord Neuberger in Bank Mellat v Her Majesty’s Treasury (No 1) [2013] UKSC 38, [2014] AC 700 (Bank Mellat (No 1)) as:
[1] … A closed material procedure involves the production of material which is so confidential and sensitive that it requires the court not only to sit in private, but to sit in a closed hearing (ie a hearing at which the court considers the material and hears submissions about it without one of the parties to the appeal seeing the material or being present), and to contemplate giving a partly closed judgment (ie a judgment part of which will not be seen by one of the parties).
In Al Rawi & Ors v The Security Service & Ors [2011] UKSC 34 [2012] AC 531 the Supreme Court held that the common law would not permit a…
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