Ian
I think "Nelsonian Knowledge" is sometimes used as a comparable term. See Lord Scott in Manifest Shipping Company Limited v. Uni-Polaris Shipping Company Limited and Others [2001] UKHL 1:
'"Blind-eye" knowledge approximates to knowledge. Nelson at the battle of Copenhagen made a deliberate decision to place the telescope to his blind eye in order to avoid seeing what he knew he would see if he placed it to his good eye. It is, I think, common ground - and if it is not, it should be - that an imputation of blind-eye knowledge requires an amalgam of suspicion that certain facts may exist and a decision to refrain from taking any step to confirm their existence. Lord Blackburn in Jones v. Gordon (1877) 2 App Cas 616, 629 distinguished a person who was "honestly blundering and careless" from a person who "refrained from asking questions, not because he was an honest blunderer or a stupid man, but because he thought in his own secret mind - I suspect there is something wrong, and if I ask questions and make farther inquiry, it will no longer be my suspecting it, but my knowing it, and then I shall not be able to recover". Lord Blackburn added "I think that is dishonesty".'
Jonathan Baines
Legal and Democratic Services
Buckinghamshire County Council
01296 383681
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ian Welton
Sent: Tuesday 05 April 2011 10:15
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] Wilful blindness
Is anybody in the group able to advise if the legal concept of 'wilful blindness' is available, and useable, within the UK legal system?
My
reason for enquiring is a reading of:-
https://theweekinethics.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/the-week-in-ethics-the-ethics-of-willful-blindness/
which brought back many memories of work in the data protection area.
Whilst this legal concept is available by other means in the public sector, the one above would seem to have a wider coverage.
Ian W
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