The Guardian newspaper has lost a Court of Appeal challenge over the decision to hold a court hearing about the Duke of Edinburgh’s will in private.
Lawyers for the Guardian argued in court last week that the entirely private hearing over whether the will should remain secret was the “most serious interference with open justice.”
Prince Philip, the nation’s longest-serving consort, died aged 99 on April 9 last year, two months before he would have turned 100.
After the death of a senior member of the royal family, it has been convention for more than a century that an application to seal their will is made to the president of the Family Division of the High Court.
This means the wills of senior members of the royal family are not open to public inspection in the way a will would ordinarily be.
At last year’s hearing, the president of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, heard legal argument from lawyers representing Philip’s estate and the Attorney General, who represents the public interest in such matters.
The Guardian challenged the decision to hold a hearing on an application to seal the will in private, arguing it was “disproportionate and unjustified”.
There is no appeal against the decision to seal the will.
Source: upday.com
