2015 – 129 The EU want to replace English Common Law with EU Corpus Juris. British justice to end?

There is a large statue of Giordano Bruno that marks the very spot where he was burned. It was put there after the Italian army had liberated Rome from Papal rule in 1870, as an act of defiance of the Vatican, just across the river Tiber, which considered the establishment of the kingdom of Italy to be a “wound” to the body of the Church, for it took away the Pope’s temporal kingship over central Italy (it was only with the Concordat with Mussolini in 1929 that the Church became reconciled to the Italian).

However, Bruno was not actually burnt for asserting that the earth was round. By 1600 the Spaniards – complete with the Spanish Inquisition – had established their empire in the Americas, Magellan and Drake had sailed all round it, so even the Cardinals and the Pope in Rome admitted that the world was round after all. Bruno was burnt as a heretic for having maintained other, heretical, doctrines (I am sure Google or Wikipedia will tell you what they were).

You may be thinking of Galileo.

At about that time (early 1600s), Galileo was saying that the world orbited round the sun, and not the sun round the earth, as everyone had believed for centuries. His evidence came from observing the moons of Jupiter orbiting round Jupiter, which he had seen through his telescope. He was had up by the Inquisition, for the Church still maintained that the earth was the centre of the universe, and the sun and all the stars and planets orbited round it.

The Cardinals who were “investigating” him, refused to look through his telescope to test his evidence. They relied on revealed authority. He actually retracted his doctrine, when threatened with torture, though they say that under his breath he muttered “And yet it does move”…

These two different approaches are, I think, exemplified in Umberto Eco’s famous novel “The Name of the Rose” (film, starring Sean Connery). Brother William of Baskerville tries to find out how some mysterious deaths occurred in the medieval monastery, by seeking evidence. Then the Inquisitor from Rome rides in, and tries to get at the truth by torturing the suspects.

In Europe to this day, these two opposing approaches are still both used, in essence. Especially in criminal investigations and courtroom procedures. In our island jurisdictions (UK, Ireland, Malta) we seek evidence, based on verified facts. On the continent, what really counts is what the authorities think and want.

With the Corpus Juris project, if and when it is adopted, we shall be forced to abandon our own methods and adopt the continental ones. It will be Byebye to Trial by Jury and Lay Magistrates (art. 26.1), Habeas Corpus (art. 20.3.g), and protection from double jeopardy (art. 27.2). It will be Hello to a career judiciary who will hold everyone’s freedom in the palm of their hands. Byebye to Magna Carta – she will indeed have died in vain! Hello to the modern Napoleonic-inquisitorial codes, as embodied in Corpus Juris.

We are already a part of the way there. Magna Carta’s clause 38 says “No legal officer shall start proceedings against anyone on his own mere say-so, without reliable witnesses brought for that purpose.” This is already rudely violated by the European Arrest Warrant, which forbids a UK court from asking to see evidence against a person who is wanted for extradition to another EU country. And when they are extradited, the local judiciary of the requesting state, under its own laws, does not need to have nor to exhibit any evidence in order to keep a suspect in prison for many months, and even longer, pending investigations.

In a word, we seek evidence of guilt before arresting a suspect; the suspect may demand that any such evidence be exhibited in a public hearing within hours, or at most days, after the arrest. Over there they seek evidence after arresting a suspect. And the arrest can therefore be followed by lengthy imprisonment while they are seeking it.

IF THE “REMAIN” SIDE WINS THE REFERENDUM, ALL BRITISH RESISTANCE TO COMPLETE POLITICAL AND LEGAL INTEGRATION WILL MELT AWAY.

SO, WE WILL SWIFTLY GET THE FULL NINE YARDS OF CORPUS JURIS, IMPOSED ON US BY MAJORITY VOTING.

AND WE WILL SEE THE LETHALLY-ARMED, MILITARISED, EUROPEAN GENDARMERIE FORCE PATROLLING OUR STREETS. THEY WILL NOT LEAVE IF ASKED TO BY ANY BRITISH AUTHORITY. FOR THEY WILL ONLY OBEY BRUSSELS.

THE PRESENT HOME SECRETARY HAS ALREADY STATED TO PARLIAMENT THAT “OF COURSE” SHE WOULD CALL ON THE EGF (“OUR PARTNERS’ SPECIAL INTERVENTION UNITS”) TO COME INTO BRITAIN, IF SHE SAW A NEED…

You have been warned.
Il 29/10/2015 15:45, Idris Francis ha scritto:

Giordano Bruno.  He was burned at the stake in Rome on February 17th 1600, for asserting that the earth was round.

Remember that when authoritarian people insist that speed cameras save lives – they do not.

Idris