Indeed the information disclosed is about the commission of a crime of bribery
which is an act that amounts to breaking the law. The Court therefore finds that
the alleged act of interference being premised on a national legislation is in
accordance with the law.
b) Accessibility of the law
70. A provision of law will be deemed accessible when the individual concern can
adequately access it or is aware of it through the dissemination process applicable
in the given case. In the Silver and Others v. United Kingdom case 5947/72 6205/73
7052/75 , the ECHR held that the Standing Orders and Circular Instructions which
the British Home Secretary issues to prison governors failed the accessibility test
since they were not published, were not available to prisoners, nor were their
contents explained in cell cards. They were, therefore, not “law” for the purpose of
Article 8, paragraph 2 of the ECHR. In the instant case, the applicants are not just
lawyers but judges of Superior Courts charged with the interpretation of the laws
of the Respondent. The referred laws are published and indeed form part of the
national laws to which they are from time to time called upon to adjudicate upon.
Having not denied the existence or knowledge of the said laws, they are deemed
to be accessible to the Applicants and therefore adjudged as Law and the Court so
finds.
c) foreseeability of the consequences of action
71. It is expected that to pass the foreseeability test, the law in question had to be
sufficiently clear to give the public an adequate indication as to the circumstances
in which and the conditions on which resort to this kind of secret interference with
private life is allowed. Laws are framed in general terms, the interpretation and
application of which are matters of practice. The level of precision required of
domestic legislation depends to a considerable degree on the content of the
instrument in question, the field it is designed to cover, and the number and status
of those to whom it is addressed. A judge cannot claim ignorance of the precise
nature of the law against bribery, the consequences of infraction of which is very
well foreseeable. The investigation of the Applicants on bribery, corruption and
unethical practice was not the result of an unforeseeable application of the
provision as it concerns conduct not only against the ethics of their profession
calling but criminal in nature. Indeed, the code of conduct to which they swore
allegiance to provides in section 9.4.9 (L) of the Human Resources Management
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