The inquests are expected to mark the end to the legal aftermath of the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed, though Mohamed Al Fayed could deliver one last parting shot if he seeks to challenge the verdicts through judicial review proceedings in the High Court.

Last night his press agent, Michael Cole, indicated that all options were being kept open.

It was such a judicial review that originally won him the right to have a jury at the inquest.

But he would have to argue that the coroner had misdirected the jury, and would be unlikely to obtain leave.

The Diana inquests: top 20 moments

Classic episodes from the six-month inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed

• Diana, Princess of Wales, unlawfully killed - but not by MI6 assassins

• Diana verdict: Mohamed Al Fayed team has almost run out of viable legal alternatives

• Paparazzi questioned after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales

Multimedia

• The Diana inquests in pictures and video

• Pictures: Diana inquest

• Pictures: CCTV of Diana at the Ritz

BACKGROUND

• Coroner blasts Burrell lies and gold-digging

• Diana death 'conspiracy' thrown out by coroner

• Al Fayed: murder, racism, cover-up

Related Links

• Diana verdict: she was unlawfully killed

• Conspiracies quashed, but questions remain

• Paparazzi questioned after the death of a Princess

Nor are criminal prosecutions or civil negligence actions thought likely. Henri Paul, the chauffeur whom the jury in effect found guilty of unlawful killing, is dead; and the paparazzi are abroad.

One coroner said: “If this had happened on British soil or by a British citizen abroad — then in theory a prosecution could be mounted for unlawful killing under the Act. But they are outside the jurisdiction.”

Only two days ago new laws came into force making it easier for people to claim against negligent UK companies for workplace deaths. But even if Mr Al Fayed could face such a claim over allowing the Princess to be driven by a drunken employee (and the Ritz Hotel was in London, not Paris) the Crown Prosecution Service would be certain to rule that such a prosecution was against the public interest.

That leaves the only possible legal action as against the paparazzi in France. But had the French police thought there was sufficient evidence to bring criminal proceedings at the time, they would have done so.

Mr Al Fayed himself could try to pursue a civil claim for damages for the loss of his son, but it is unlikely that any paparazzo has the money to make a civil action worthwhile.

In other ways the inquest ventured into new territory that could have lasting impact.

The daily proceedings were posted on a special website so that the public had full access each day to everything said. That openness may now be copied — although it comes at a cost.

Other reforms may follow. When the French Government refused to force the paparazzi living there to testify, the coroner proposed having their previous statements read to the jury.

He immediately faced a legal challenge from lawyers arguing that he could not introduce such controversial evidence without calling a witness to cross-examine. The coroner lost at the Court of Appeal but the matter sparked calls from senior judges for the law to be changed.

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