R (on the application of Omar and others) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [2012] EWHC 1737 (Admin), [2012] All ER (D) 06 (Jul)
The court could not order the provision of evidence for proceedings in overseas courts other than through the statutory regime provided by the Crime (International Co-operation) Act 2003. The legislative history of the statutory regime had made clear that the scheme for compelling evidence for use outside the jurisdiction was exclusively statutory. Therefore, the legislation was necessary to confer on the courts power to compel the giving of evidence to be used in overseas proceedings and, accordingly, the jurisdiction had always been exclusively statutory. The result was that the power of the courts to use Norwich Pharmacal proceedings had to be developed within the confines of the existence of the statutory regime through which evidence in such proceedings overseas had to be obtained. Norwich Pharmacal proceedings were not ousted, but where proceedings were brought to obtain evidence, the court as a matter of principle ought to decline to make orders for
