By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley

On September 17, 2015, the UK Supreme Court held a climate-change propaganda event in its no. 1 and no. 2 courtrooms, in which only one side of the debate was permitted. Lord Carnwath, chairman of the event and a justice of the court, said:

“President Obama has said we are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it. On that basis, the forthcoming Paris negotiations under the UN Climate Change Convention are a crucial test of our ability as a global community to address those challenges. The intention is that the commitments which emerge from those negotiations should have legal force.”

Worse, Philippe Sands QC, the court’s chosen lecturer, having regurgitated numerous IPCC talking-points without questioning the veracity of any of them, expressed outrageous prejudice against scientifically-qualified skeptics when he said:

“The International Court of Justice or International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea could be asked, for example, to confirm (as a scientific matter) that emissions reductions are needed – nationally and globally – to stay below the globally agreed temperature threshold of 2 degrees Celsius. As I noted at the outset, there is a broad emerging consensus on many of these factual matters, but they remain subject to challenge in some quarters, including by scientifically qualified, knowledgeable and influential individuals, and the courts could play a role here in finally scotching those claims.”

The Court at first broke the law by failing to reply on time to my freedom-of-information request about its pantomime of hate against “scientifically qualified, knowledgeable and influential” skeptics whose “claims” its favoured lecturer said it and its counterparts worldwide should “scotch”.

It then continued to break the law by sending not a single one of the documents or records I had requested. Its excuse was that it would cost more than the statutory $1000 limit to source and send the documents.

Accordingly, I invited readers of WUWT to assist. Within hours plenty came forward. Each of the first nine responders has been asked to send one of the following questions to the UK Supreme Court under section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000:

1. Please supply copies or, where copies are unavailable, records of all correspondence or conversations in connection with the climate-change conference at the Supreme Court. In particular, but without limitation, please supply copies or records of all correspondence or conversations between or among any of the Justices or other personnel, servants or agents of the Supreme Court, any of the participants, any government departments and any suppliers or contractors. I do not expect that this request will breach the statutory cost limit, since you can send an email to everyone asking for copies of the relevant files and then simply assemble the documentation and email or post it to me.

2. Please supply a complete list of the names of and positions held by all who attended the climate change conference. I assume that a list is readily available, since either the court itself invited them or it permitted them to attend on the basis of invitations sent out by a third party. If the latter, then under Section 16 of the Act please identify the third party, since I shall wish to address freedom-of-information questions to it. Furthermore, the court’s security staff were no doubt given one so that they could admit to the building those who were on the list, so I do not expect to be told that providing the list would be disproportionately expensive.

3. Please let me have copies of all correspondence between any of the justices, personnel, servants or agents of the Supreme Court and any of those who attended its conference on climate change on 17 September 2015. In particular, please supply correspondence from and to the Court’s then chief executive officer, and from and to Lord Carnwath, who chaired the conference.

4. Please send me copies of all agendas, working papers and other documentation of whatever kind in connection with the climate-change conference at the Supreme Court that were produced by or received by or sent, given, transmitted or otherwise made available to or by any of the Justices or other personnel, servants or agents of the Supreme Court. There are only a dozen Justices and a small number of other personnel who were involved in organizing the conference, and I do not consider that a round-robin email from the freedom-of-information office to each of them, followed by collation and forwarding of the documents they supply, will breach the statutory expenditure threshold.

5. Please identify the person or persons who requested the then Chief Executive of the Supreme Court to permit the use of the Court’s premises to stage the climate-change conference of September 17, 2015, together with the date of the request and all correspondence from the beginning of 2015 to the present between those persons or the organizations they represent and any of the Justices, personnel, servants or agents of the Court. I require this information by way of assistance in terms of Section 16 of the Act, so that I can submit freedom-of-information requests to any other public bodies – such as Government departments or universities – who may have played a part in originating or organizing the conference.

6. Please state under what head of expenditure approved by Parliament the £775 spent by the Supreme Court on the hire of a broadcast engineer for the Supreme Court’s climate-change conference on 17 September 2015 was authorized, and by whom. I require this information in terms of section 16 of the Act so that I may frame and direct freedom-of-information requests to the Ministry of Justice and to HM Treasury with the object of determining whether the said expenditure was permitted by law and was consistent with the obligation of the Court to be politically neutral on questions of current contention.

7. Please supply copies or records of all correspondence or conversations in each of the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 between Lord Carnwath and the United Nations Environment Program that have been or are filed at the Supreme Court, together with accounts of all honoraria, expenses or other emoluments or remuneration whatever paid to or received by Lord Carnwath or any of his servants or agents by the United Nations Environment Program or any of its servants or agents. I require this information because I have seen evidence suggesting that Lord Carnwath is not impartial on environmental questions, and has a particular prejudice on the question of climate change, and because I propose to direct freedom-of-information requests to the Ministry of Justice and thereafter a complaint to the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman. If it is the contention of the Supreme Court that, though it is itself obliged to comply with the Freedom of Information Act its justices, albeit that they are members of that public authority, are exempt, I should be grateful, in terms of section 16 of the Act, to be told which provision of the Act or of any delegated legislation made thereunder exempts the Court’s Justices from all scrutiny when they have acted in such a fashion as to give good grounds to suspect that they are parti pris.

8. Please provide a complete list of all cases concerning the environment, climate, or other matters connected in any way with the subject-matter of the conference that are currently before the Supreme Court.

9. Please provide copies of all documents held by the Supreme Court in connection with the prejudice demonstrated by Lord Carnwath on the question of climate change during the Court’s widely-broadcast climate-change conference on September 17, 2015, together with documents relating to any steps taken or to be taken to ensure that Lord Carnwath is not permitted to sit in judgement, or to participate in any way, in any case relating to climate change or to the environment.

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