On 6 February 2019 the Supreme Court (Lord Wilson, Lord Hodge & Lord Lloyd-Jones) granted permission to appeal to Shagang. Shagang are represented by Quadrant Chambers’ Ruth Hosking & Caroline Pounds led by Dinah Rose QC of Blackstone Chambers and instructed by HFW Shanghai (Julian Davies, Trevor Fox & Kate Fisher).  The National Council for Civil Liberties intervened by making submissions to the Supreme Court on the application for permission to appeal (represented by Ben Jaffey QC of Blackstone Chambers).

The Supreme Court gave permission on the following grounds:

(1)    Whether the Court of Appeal erred in law in finding that the real possibility that a hearsay statement has been extracted under torture is an irrelevant consideration which must be disregarded by a Judge assessing its weight pursuant to s.4 Civil Evidence Act 1995.

(2)    Whether the Court of Appeal erred in law in finding that the Judge’s finding that he could not rule out torture amounted in law to a finding that there was no torture.

(3)    Whether the Court of Appeal erred in law in finding that a payment made to an individual who was not an employee or agent of Grand china Shipping should be irrebuttably presumed to have induced Grand China Shipping to enter into the charterparty.