ABSTRACT
Judicial deference to the executive in national security and international relations had not meant allowing state agents to be off the hook for lawbreaking which impinged on judicial functions. It was only since 1998 that those facing deportation from the United Kingdom (UK) on national security grounds even had a right of appeal to a court. It would be some years, before the modern, post-Guantanamo cases alleging UK complicity in rendition and torture reached the courts. By the time the Intelligence and Security Committee held its rendition inquiry, it had been obvious for some years that justice as understood by lawyers was not what was envisaged for the 'bad men' captured on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency, on and off the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. It was left to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights to probe allegations of complicity in torture in greater depth in its 2008/9 inquiry.
