THE British government has been hit with a series of highly embarrassing judicial rulings this week.
The rulings that caused so much pain were:
Radical preacher Abu Qatada winning his fight against deportation on Wednesday, and ministers being forced to abandon their bid to deport a further 12 terrorism suspects.
Qatada, a Jordanian once described as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe", will remain behind bars while the home office appeals against his landmark victory in the court of appeal.
In the second case two Libyans won their appeals against deportation, leading the home office to drop deportation proceedings against them and 10 other Libyans suspected of terrorism.
The high court ruled on Thursday that the government and serious fraud office "unlawfully submitted" to threats from the Saudi government and dropped a corruption investigation.
Judges found the office wrongly ended a bribery investigation involving BAE Systems and the Saudi government, condemning the government's "abject surrender" to "blatant threats".
Yesterday's ruling that sending soldiers out on patrol or into battle with defective equipment could amount to a breach of their human rights - a decision that could have significant consequences in Iraq and Afghanistan.