41
SOERING v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
122. Mr Soering did admittedly make an application for judicial review
together with his application for habeas corpus and was met with an
unfavourable response from Lord Justice Lloyd on the issue of
"irrationality" (see paragraph 22 above). However, as Lord Justice Lloyd
explained, the claim failed because it was premature, the courts only having
jurisdiction once the Minister has actually taken his decision (ibid.).
Furthermore, the arguments adduced by Mr Soering were by no means the
same as those relied on when justifying his complaint under Article 3 (art.
3) before the Convention institutions. His counsel before the Divisional
Court limited himself to submitting that the assurance by the United States
authorities was so worthless that no reasonable Secretary of State could
regard it as satisfactory under the Treaty. This is an argument going to the
likelihood of the death penalty being imposed but says nothing about the
quality of the treatment awaiting Mr Soering after sentence to death, this
being the substance of his allegation of inhuman and degrading treatment.
There was nothing to have stopped Mr Soering bringing an application
for judicial review at the appropriate moment and arguing "Wednesbury
unreasonableness" on the basis of much the same material that he adduced
before the Convention institutions in relation to the "death row
phenomenon". Such a claim would have been given "the most anxious
scrutiny" in view of the fundamental nature of the human right at stake (see
paragraph 35 above). The effectiveness of the remedy, for the purposes of
Article 13 (art. 13), does not depend on the certainty of a favourable
outcome for Mr Soering (see the Swedish Engine Drivers’ Union judgment
of 6 February 1976, Series A no. 20, p. 18, § 50), and in any event it is not
for this Court to speculate as to what would have been the decision of the
English courts.
123. The English courts’ lack of jurisdiction to grant interim injunctions
against the Crown (see paragraph 35 in fine above) does not, in the Court’s
opinion, detract from the effectiveness of judicial review in the present
connection, since there is no suggestion that in practice a fugitive would
ever be surrendered before his application to the Divisional Court and any
eventual appeal therefrom had been determined.
124. The Court concludes that Mr Soering did have available to him
under English law an effective remedy in relation to his complaint under
Article 3 (art. 3). This being so, there is no need to inquire into the other two
remedies referred to by the United Kingdom Government.
There is accordingly no breach of Article 13 (art. 13).
IV. APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 50 (art. 50)
125. Under the terms of Article 50 (art. 50),
"If the Court finds that a decision or a measure taken by a legal authority or any
other authority of a High Contracting Party is completely or partially in conflict with