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In November Lord Steyn launched a stinging attack on the US's treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, describing the detainees' situation as a "monstrous failure of justice".
Delivering the FA Mann Lecture at Lincoln's Inn, Steyn said: "The purpose of holding the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay was and is to put them beyond the rule of law, beyond the protection of any courts and at the mercy of the victors."
Other prisoners in 2003 also felt the effects of Steyn's sense of justice. Sitting in the Privy Council, Steyn helped reverse an ancient law in Trinidad and Tobago which did not account for mitigating circumstances when passing the death sentence. More than 200 prisoners on the islands' death row had their sentences reduced or were released as a result.
On a matter closer to home, Steyn defended one of the cornerstones of the Human Rights Act when, sitting in the Lords, he upheld a Court of Appeal ruling that criminal proceedings should be stayed if they did not take place within a reasonable time limit.
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