.png){kind=icon}
Chapter 9 Interactive key cases
Funding Access to the English Legal System
McDonald’s restaurant sued the defendants for libel. The defendants, two environmental campaigners, handed out leaflets regarding the nutritional value of McDonald’s burgers and the way the company was operated. Steel and Morris could not afford a legal team, unlike McDonald’s, and thus were disadvantaged at trial.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that Article 6(1) ECHR demands a right to ‘equality of arms’ (i.e. both parties should be roughly in the same position in terms of access to the law). Because legal aid was not permitted, there was an inequality of arms, thus there was a breach of Article 6 on the part of the state.