from the Inner Temple Library
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
“A widow who found that the tributes she left on her husband’s grave were being moved took the case to the church court on the grounds that the dead man’s human rights were being breached.”
Daily Telegraph, 7th February 2011
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“Human remains from Stonehenge and other ancient settlements will be reburied and lost to science under legislation that threatens to cripple research into the history of humans in Britain, a group of leading archaeologists says today.”
The Guardian, 4th February 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Severe restrictions on scientists’ freedom to study bones and skulls from ancient graves are putting archaeological research in Britain at risk, according to experts.”
The Guardian, 10th October 2010
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Burial rules in a West Midlands diocese have been changed after a mix-up with grave plots which led to a court ordering an exhumation.”
BBC News, 7th April 2010
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The aims of the provisions of the Cremation Act 1902 were to ensure that cremations were subject to uniform rules throughout the country, to enable the Secretary of State to regulate the manner and places in which cremations were carried out, to require a crematorium to be a building which was appropriately equipped and to ensure that a crematorium was not located near homes or roads. Further, the Act envisaged that crematoria would be constructed, so that, provided a structure was relatively permanent and substantial so that it could properly be said to have been constructed and provided it could normally be so described, the structure would be a ‘building’ within s 2 giving that word its natural and wide meaning.”
WLR Daily, 12th February 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
“A Hindu takes his legal battle for the right to be cremated on a traditional open-air funeral pyre to the Court of Appeal today.”
The Independent, 18th January 2010
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“A church court is to decide whether to exhume a man’s body after he was buried in a plot reserved for a widow of another man.”
BBC News, 2nd December 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Steve Blum’s son Christopher was buried last November but he did not go to the funeral.
Mr Blum, who has always disputed the the pathologists’ finding of cot death as the cause of four-month-old Christopher’s death, wanted his son to remain in the North London mortuary where he had lain for 21 years until he could have the inquest he feels his son deserves.”
BBC News, 23rd June 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Regina (Ghai) v Newcastle upon Tyne City Council
Queen’s bench Division
“The orthodox Hindu belief in the necessity of open-air cremation as a manifestation of belief within the meaning of article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights was limited by statutory provisions which were justified under article 9.2 of the Convention.”
The Times, 18th May 2009
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
R (Ghai) v Newcastle City Council (Ramgharia Gurdwara, Hitchin and another intervening)
“The burning of human remains other than in a crematorium was a criminal offence under ss 2 and 8 of the Cremation Act 1902 and regs 2(1) and 13 of the Cremation (England and Wales) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/2841). Cremation of an orthodox Hindu on an open air pyre was a manifestation of his belief within the meaning of art 9 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the statutory provisions on cremation limited his freedom to manifest that belief. The statutory provisions governing open air funeral pyres were, however, justified under art 9(2) on the grounds of the protection of public morals and the rights and freedoms of others.”
WLR Daily, 13th May 2009
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
“A bid by a devout Hindu for the legal right to be cremated on a traditional open-air funeral pyre has been rejected by the High Court in London.”
BBC News, 8th May 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“In a test case on religious burials, Davender Ghai, aged 70, is challenging a refusal by Newcastle City Council to permit him to be cremated according to his Hindu faith.”
Daily Telegraph, 24th March 2009
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“Too many burial grounds operators are staking or laying down memorials which are not a serious risk to the public. New guidance published today by Justice Minister Bridget Prentice makes it clear this should only be done as a last resort.”
Ministry of Justice, 16th January 2009
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
“New guidelines to help assess the safety of gravestones after councils carried out ‘over-zealous’ topple-testing have been welcomed by an MP.”
BBC News, 20th January 2009
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The right of families to inspect medical forms of a deceased relative completed by doctors before cremation takes place will start on 1 January 2009, Justice Minister Bridget Prentice said.”
Ministry of Justice, 17th December 2008
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
“A Dorset mother forced to wait 18 months to bury her two-year-old son has been celebrating after her six-year campaign led to a change in the law.”
BBC News, 4th December 2008
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The Cremation Regulations 2008 come into effect on 1 January 2009. They modernise and consolidate all previous regulations, replacing the Cremation Regulations 1930 as amended.”
Ministry of Justice, 7th November 2008
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
“New Cremation Regulations designed to help prevent another Harold Shipman-type murder have been published today.”
Ministry of Justice, 3rd November 2008
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
“A judge ruled that Enfield Council should not bury Christopher Blum for at least three weeks to give his father time to prepare a legal case.”
Daily Telegraph, 25th September 2008
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“The family of a Liverpool man stabbed to death in Spain are to go to the European Court of Human Rights in their campaign to help bring his body home.”
BBC News, 24th September 2008
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The remains of a baby boy that have been kept in a mortuary for 21 years will be buried on Friday without any relatives present after his family withdrew their consent for the funeral to go ahead.”
The Guardian, 24th September 2008
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The remains of a baby boy that have been in a mortuary for more than 21 years because his parents refused to register his death are to be buried by a council without their consent.”
The Guardian, 28th July 2008
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The body of a baby boy that has been lying in a mortuary freezer for 21 years is to be buried against his parents’ wishes after a council used new powers to formalise his death.”
The Times, 28th July 2008
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
“Bridget Prentice has made a written ministerial statement on the statutory duty to report deaths to the coroner and the modernisation and consolidation of the cremation regulations.”
Ministry of Justice, 21st May 2008
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
“A widow who does not want to be buried with her parents-in-law has failed in her attempt to have her husband’s ashes dug up.”
Daily Telegraph, 25th October 2007
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“Bereaved families will have the right to inspect the medical forms of a deceased family member before cremation, under new proposals published today. The proposals are designed to help stop a repeat of the murders by Harold Shipman.”
Ministry of Justice press release, 16th July 2007
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
“In 2004 a consultation paper was issued on burial law reform – ‘Burial Law and Policy in the 21st Century: The Need for a Sensitive and Sustainable Approach’. A report on the responses received was published in April 2006. Since then the Government has considered the responses in more detail, has held a series of workshops and consulted within and outside government. In the light of that work, decisions have been taken on all the issues canvassed. The publication ‘Burial Law and Policy in the 21st Century: the way forward’ sets out the Government’s decisions in the order they were raised in the consultation paper.”
Burial Law and Policy in the 21st Century: the way forward (PDF)
Ministry of Justice, 5th June 2007
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
“The open-air burning of human corpses may be permitted across Britain after a religious charity won a significant victory in its campaign to legalise traditional Hindu funerals. ”
The Times, 10th April 2007
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
Current Awareness 