In R (on the application of Corner House Research) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office [2008] EWHC 714, the court considered the decision by the Director of the Serious Fraud Office to halt investigation into bribery allegations regarding arms contracts with the government of Saudi Arabia. This provoked an explicit threat made by Saudi representatives to the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, leading to a suspension of the investigation. The Divisional Court concluded that the decision to halt the investigation represented asurrender to an external threat and therefore ran directly contrary to the constitutional principle of the rule of law. It therefore quashed the Director's decision. The House of Lords (see [2008] UKHL 60) subsequently reversed this judgment, however, concluding that the Director had been entitled to conclude that the public interest in pursuing an important investigation into alleged bribery was outweighed by the wider public interest in protecting national security.