''His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales v Associated Newspapers Ltd'' 006EWHC 11 (Ch) is an English legal case brought about when ''

The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the '' Daily Mail'', was first pu ...

'' published extracts of a dispatch by

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

, the heir to the British throne. The extracts published in November 2005 from the dispatch, titled "The handover of Hong Kong or the Great Chinese Takeaway", were personally embarrassing to the Prince. The dispatch had been written on the flight back from

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

to the United Kingdom from the

transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies ...

to China, and had been handed out to friends. The Prince described the 1997

Hong Kong handover ceremony The handover ceremony of Hong Kong in 1997 officially marked the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the People's Republic of China. It was an internationally televised event w ...

as an "awful Soviet-style" performance and "ridiculous rigmarole" and the likened Chinese officials to "appalling old waxworks". The extracts were one of eight reports written following overseas tours in the 1990s that were leaked to the newspaper by Sarah Goodall, a former secretary in the prince's household from 1988 to 2000. The journals were written by Charles following foreign visits and over the course of 30 years. They had been shared "in confidence" with between 50 and 75 people.

Judgment

The Prince won the case and gained an injunction in January 2006 which prevented ''The Mail on Sunday'' from publishing further extracts from the diary. The High Court ruled in a

summary judgment In law, a summary judgment (also judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition) is a judgment entered by a court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes ...

in March 2006 that the newspaper had infringed his copyright and confidentiality. No judgement was made regarding the seven unpublished reports from his journals. An appeal hearing was held in November 2006, but the newspaper's request for a trial was dismissed by the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

in December 2006.

References

2006 in case law 2006 in British law Charles III Diaries Daily Mail and General Trust English privacy case law High Court of Justice cases {{UK-law-stub

Judgment

See also

References