{"id":187,"date":"2025-12-05T06:55:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T06:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gov.fk\/courts\/?page_id=187"},"modified":"2025-12-17T07:42:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T07:42:03","slug":"judgments","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gov.fk\/courts\/judgments\/","title":{"rendered":"Judgments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Home<\/a><\/span> \u00bb Judgments<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n
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Publication of Judgements<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Publishing Policy for Court Judgments and Tribunal Decisions in the Falkland Islands<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Background and Open Justice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Court judgments and tribunal decisions are important public records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open justice is a constitutional principle. As recognised by Lord Chief Justice Burnett of England and Wales in his September 2023 speech to the Commonwealth Judges and Magistrates Association Conference in Cardiff, Wales, this longstanding constitutional principle was \u201cforged in a time before the use of any technology and little reporting.\u201d<\/em> With current technology, judgments can be easily and permanently accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court service publishes all written judgments by the Magistrate\u2019s Court, Supreme Court and its Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The office of the Attorney General has raised two concerns about the publication of judgment with the court service:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. The publication of details of sexual offending in judgments available on the court website; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. The propriety of publishing judgments from the criminal courts beyond the length of the statutory rehabilitation period for the relevant offence.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The Judiciary of the Falkland Islands is of the view that all decisions of the courts, including the decisions and sentencing remarks of the Magistrate\u2019s Court, should be published. Reference is made to the dictum of Lady Hale, President of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in\u00a0Cape Intermediate Holdings Ltd. v Dring<\/strong>\u00a0[2019] UKSC 38 on open justice where she states<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    the constitutional principle of open justice applies to all courts and tribunals exercising the judicial power of the state. It follows that, unless inconsistent with statute or the rules of court, all courts and tribunals have an inherent jurisdiction to determine what that principle requires in terms of access to documents \u2026 It is not correct to talk in terms of limits to the court\u2019s jurisdiction when what is in fact in question is how that jurisdiction should be exercised in the particular case<\/em>. (para 41).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Publication of Judgements Quicklinks<\/h5>\n\n\n