Saudi Arabia: British High Court green lights arms sales to Saudi Arabia

"Putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank"

London's High Court ruled on Monday that the British government's arms sales to Saudi Arabia were lawful and could continue.

Human rights activists are outraged by the ruling and plan to appeal Britain's highest court. The judges ruled there was insufficient evidence of a "clear risk" of the weapons being used for "serious" rights breaches.

The case revolved around a part of the UK's Export Control Act, which states that the British government "will not grant a licence if there is a clear risk that the items might be used in the commission of a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law."

The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) - a group of NGOs including Oxfam, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch - brought the case to the court, arguing that exports to Saudi Arabia currently breached this condition, given the likelihood of the weapons being used in the Saudi campaign in Yemen.

The plaintiffs slammed the court's ruling, saying they would appeal to the UK's Supreme Court. Oxfam said the decision "sets back arms control 25 years."

Note EU-Digest: Scandalous and inhumane  decision by the British High Court and a victory for the British weapons industry. Unfortunately this decision will eventually  come and haunt the British population as a whole in the form of terrorism sponsored by the same nation Britain sold their weapons to.
 
Read more: British High Court green lights arms sales to Saudi Arabia | News | DW | 10.07.2017

Privacy Laws - Google: U.K. Court Case Against Google Could Clarify Law On Private Data - by Natasha Loma

The U.K. data protection watchdog, the ICO, has intervened in a court case brought against Google on privacy grounds by a group of U.K. Internet users because it is interested in how aspects of the case might help clarify questions around the jurisdiction of national data protection law vis-à-vis Internet giants, which are invariably based overseas.

The U.K. web users bringing the case, which has been ongoing since the start of 2013, allege that Google used cookies to track their browsing activity via Apple’s Safari browser in 2011 and 2012 against their wishes. The case follows an earlier class action law suit against Google in the U.S. which was thrown out because the judge said the plaintiffs could not prove they had suffered any harm.

However the FTC did slap Google with a penalty of $22.5 million for secretly bypassing Safari privacy settings in order to harvest intel to sell to advertisers.

Google’s legal strategy to fight the case in the U.K. has included attempting to have the complaint dismissed and moved to its own jurisdiction of California, claiming it processes information outside the U.K. and therefore that U.K. data protection law does not apply.

Earlier this year the U.K. High Court rejected that argument and permitted the case to be heard here. Google then went to the Court of Appeal to try to overturn the ruling — and it’s at this point the ICO has intervened by submitting written evidence to the court.

Read more: U.K. Court Case Against Google Could Clarify Law On Private Data | TechCrunch