The Fraud (Trials Without a Jury) Bill 2007 was a proposed Act of Parliament introduced by the United Kingdom government. Its intention was to abolish trials by jury in complex fraud cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by amending section 43 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The Bill was given its First Reading in the House of Commons on 16 November 2006. In a highly unusual move it was blocked by the House of Lords using a delaying tactic in March 2007. Lord Kingsland said:
On the substance of the matter, as your Lordships are well aware, jury trial has been a central component in the conduct of all serious criminal trials for about the past 700 years. Its contribution to the preservation of the liberty of the individual, and to the legitimacy of Government, is quite incalculable.
Famous quotes containing the words fraud and/or bill:
“There exists in a great part of the Northern people a gloomy diffidence in the moral character of the government. On the broaching of this question, as general expression of despondency, of disbelief that any good will accrue from a remonstrance on an act of fraud and robbery, appeared in those men to whom we naturally turn for aid and counsel. Will the American government steal? Will it lie? Will it kill?—We ask triumphantly.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is my belief that there are “absolutes” in our Bill of Rights, and that they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant, and meant their prohibitions to be “absolute.””
—Hugo Black (b. 1922)