R. v Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate, ex parte Pinochet Ugarte (No. 2)

Facts

The House of Lords had ruled against Senator Pinochet (former Head of State of Chile) on his immunity from extradition for alleged crimes against humanity. Amnesty International (AI) had been allowed to intervene to argue against immunity. It later emerged that Lord Hoffmann, who sat on the panel, was a director and chairman of Amnesty International Charity Ltd (AICL), a body closely allied to and controlled by AI. Pinochet petitioned to set aside the order on the ground of apparent bias.

Issues

• Whether a judge with a non-pecuniary interest, arising from involvement with a charity allied to a party, is automatically disqualified.
• Whether the order obtained from a panel including such a judge must be set aside even without proof of actual bias.

Arguments

Pinochet argued not actual bias but that Lord Hoffmann's links with AI gave the appearance of bias and that the order must be set aside. It was urged that automatic disqualification had hitherto been confined to pecuniary/proprietary interests.

Held

The House of Lords set aside its earlier order, holding that the fundamental rule that a man may not be a judge in his own cause is not limited to pecuniary interest. Where a judge is so closely involved in promoting the same cause as a party (here, as director of a charity controlled by AI which sought a particular result), he is automatically disqualified without any inquiry into likelihood of bias. Lord Hoffmann was disqualified as a matter of law by reason of his directorship of AICL. The Court stressed the facts were exceptional and confined the extension to active trustees/directors of bodies closely allied to a party.

Ratio decidendi

The principle of automatic disqualification applies not only to financial interest but also to a non-pecuniary interest in the promotion of a cause where the judge is, with a party, an active promoter of that cause.

Significance

Internationally leading bias decision extending automatic disqualification to non-pecuniary 'cause' interests; cited in Indian law (e.g. Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam v Girja Shankar Pant) as illustrating both the rule and the trend that apparent bias / real danger of bias suffices, while later cases (Locabail) caution that everything depends on facts.

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