When he was Minister of State for Borders and Immigration in the Home Office, Phil Woolas MP objected to asylum seekers pursuing justice through appeals to the courts. Unlike him, of course, they had not been found guilty of breaking the law. Unlike him also, they did not have influential friends to fund their legal appeals.
Echoing remarks made early this year by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chief Justice has said that there is no conflict between Sharia principles for conflict resolution and civil law.
"There is no dispute about our common allegiance to the law of the land" Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams told the General Synod of the Church of England - and a watching world on TV and the internet - this afternoon.