Burstein claimed that he was defamed in an Evening Standard review that said his opera Manifest Destiny made suicide bombers seem heroic. His litigation over that review, whe he argued implied he was sympathetic to suicide bombers, was unsuccessful. The UK court of appeal accepted the Evening Standard's argument that the piece was fair comment. Burstein was subsequently declared bankrupt after failing to pay pay the Standard's costs, estimated at £67,000, having failed to persuade the chief registrar that payment should be delayed until after an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. His appeal to the ECHR claimed a breach of human rights on the basis that he was denied a jury trial.
The ECHR has declined to consider the case, stating that -
In the light of all the material in its possession, and in so far as the matters complained of were within its competence, the court found that they did not disclose any appearance of a violation of rights and freedoms set out in the convention or its protocols.Burstein is reported as commenting that -
I took the case to Europe but in Europe you have to prove your human rights have been breached and my submission claimed that the denial of a jury trial breached my human right to a fair trial. The judge examining the case has decided there was no 'appearance of violation of rights'. I do not know why this decision was reached and no reasons are given.Time for an opera about justice and juries?
However, I was warned prior to Europe that in Europe there is not the reverence we have in the UK for jury trial and nor are the libel laws as robust as in the UK.
Therefore once the court of appeal had closed off the jury trial awarded by the high court and the case was left only to Europe as last port of call the chances were always slim.
