The role of special advocates

The rise in secret courts or ‘closed material proceedings’ (CMPs) in recent years has called into question our commitment to long-cherished principles of open justice and due process. This debate has somewhat overshadowed the role of special advocates, who are appointed to represent the interests of parties excluded from such hearings. These advocates pose a challenge to the traditions of advocacy in the adversarial system but an international consensus across the common law world appears to be emerging that they may be justified on human rights grounds of fairness in that they bring a measure of procedural fairness to closed material proceedings. This paper examines this claim and considers the extent to which the rise of special advocates poses a threat to the adversarial tradition.