The European Court of Human Rights: Al-Khawaja & Tahery v. United Kingdom

On December 15, 2011, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (‘‘ECtHR’’) issued its final ruling in Al-Khawaja & Tahery v. United Kingdom. This highly anticipated ruling reexamined the United Kingdom’s laws that allowed convictions based primarily on the statement of a witness unavailable for cross-examination. This is the second time the ECtHR has visited this issue, after the U.K. courts declined to follow the earlier ECtHR’s decision that found that the U.K. law violated the European Convention on Human Rights (‘‘European Convention’’).