Last July, Nicholas Stadlen rose to de-fend the Bank of England against the charge that it had failed properly to regulate BCCI, a now-defunct bank. Mr Stadlen, who had waited patiently while the prosecution ploughed through what was reckoned to be the longest opening statement in English legal history, hinted at the performance to come by declaring: "after six months, the empire strikes back". He finally sat down this week, having comfortably outdone his opponent. It is a record, though the lack of restraint is not novel. As Charles Dickens noted in 1853, "the one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself."
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