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Public Inquiries: Wrong Route on Bloody Sunday

Public Inquiries: Wrong Route on Bloody Sunday

Author: Louis Blom-Cooper
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781509931309

Published In: August 2019
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Hardback Edition ISBN: 9781509906789

List Price: HKD 337.87

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Description
Contents

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Throughout the twentieth century, administrations have wrestled with allaying public concern over national disasters and social scandals. This book seeks to describe historically the use of public inquiries, and demonstrates why their methods continued to deploy until 1998 the ingrained habits of lawyers, particularly by issuing warning letters in order to safeguard witnesses who might be to blame. Under the influence of Lord Justice Salmon, the vital concern about systems and services allotted to social problems was relegated to the identification of individual blameworthiness.

The book explains why the last inquiry under that system, into the events of 'Bloody Sunday' under Lord Saville's chairmanship, cost £200 million and took twelve and a half years (instead of two years). 'Never again', was the Government's muted cry as the method of investigating the public concern was eventually replaced by the Inquiries Act 2005, by common consent a good piece of legislation.

The overriding principle of fairness to witnesses was confirmed by Parliament to those who are 'core participants' to the event, but with limited rights to participate. The public inquiry, the author asserts, is now publicly administered as a Commission of Inquiry, and is correctly regarded as a branch of public administration that focuses on the systemic question of what went wrong, as opposed to which individuals were to blame.

Part I: Public Inquiries: Introduction

1. Concern for Scandals and Disasters

2. Early Beginnings: Corruption and Maladministration

Part II: The Principles of Public Inquiries

3. The Royal Commission on Tribunals of Inquiry 1966 (the Salmon Commission)

4. The Jurisprudence of Public Inquiries

Part III: Bloody Sunday; Second Time Around 1998–2010

5. The Wrong Turn in 1998: A Final Dose of Inappropriate Legalism

6. The Lapse of Time: Assessment of Evidence

7. The Unexplained Circumstances

Part IV: The Inquiries Act 2005

8. An Analysis of the Act of 2005: An Aspect of Public Administration