(UK) Judges' verdict on terror laws provoke s constitutional crisis

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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Subject:        (UK) Judges' verdict on terror laws provokes constitutional crisis
Author: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk>
Date:           17th December 2004 12:28:47 pm

Hi Dave:

I am, or at least was, much more used to reading 
about the US Supreme Court - in contrast to UK 
Law Lords (our nearest equivalent) - reining in 
the excesses of the executive branch. Hence my 
surprise at the following story, splashed all 
over the front page of today's Guardian newspaper:

> Judges' verdict on terror laws provokes constitutional crisis
>
> Clare Dyer, Michael White and Alan Travis
> Friday December 17, 2004
> The Guardian
>
> A scathing law lords judgment condemning the 
> indefinite detention of foreign terror suspects 
> as a threat to the life of the nation left 
> anti-terrorist laws in tatters yesterday.
>
> The ruling by an 8-1 majority held that the 
> indefinite detention without trial at Belmarsh, 
> and Woodhill high security prisons was unlawful 
> under the European convention on human rights 
> (ECHR).
>
> Constitutional lawyers called it one of the most 
> important decisions from Britain's highest court 
> in 50 years.
>
> But 24 hours after David Blunkett, the law's 
> sponsor, was forced to resign as home secretary, 
> Downing St and the new home secretary, Charles 
> Clarke decided to tough it out. They would study 
> the judgment - but made it plain they are more 
> likely to renew the controversial laws than 
> modify them.
>
> Lord Hoffmann, ruled that there is no "state of 
> public emergency threatening the life of the 
> nation"- the only basis on which Britain is 
> entitled to exercise its opt-out from article 
> five of the European convention, the right to 
> liberty.
>
> It was the anti-terror laws introduced by Mr 
> Blunkett which posed a threat, he declared. "The 
> real threat to the life of the nation, in the 
> sense of a people living in accordance with its 
> traditional laws and political values, comes not 
> from terrorism but from laws such as these."
> . . .

Full story at:

   http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1375827,00.html

Additional coverage at:
   http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/0,7368,367207,00.html

This includes the following leader column:

> Ancient liberties
>
> Leader
> Friday December 17, 2004
> The Guardian
>
> It is difficult to recall when a minister 
> received such an unenviable baptism as Charles 
> Clarke, in his first day as home secretary 
> yesterday. The ferocity of the law lords' 
> judgment against the catch-all 2001 
> Anti-terrorism Act - the government's 
> "Guantánamo Bay" law, under which foreign 
> terrorist suspects can be detained without 
> charge or trial - was unprecedented. Remember 
> this was only the second occasion in recent 
> times that the law lords have sat as a panel of 
> nine, rather than the usual five, because of the 
> importance of the issue. They voted eight to one 
> in declaring that detaining people indefinitely 
> on suspicion alone contravened democratic rights 
> and international obligations.
>
> As Lord Hoffman noted, the case called into 
> question "the very existence of an ancient 
> liberty of which this country has until now been 
> very proud: freedom from arbitrary arrest and 
> detention". His conclusion could not have been 
> more unequivocal or blunt: the act was a bigger 
> threat to the nation than terrorism. We agree. 
> It has eroded the very freedoms for which we are 
> supposed to be combating terrorism. Lord Scott 
> went one step further, comparing the act to the 
> "nightmares" associated with France before and 
> during its revolution and the Soviet Union in 
> Stalin's era. The act is abominable, but scale - 
> 16 suspects held - has to be taken into account.
> . . .

cheers

Brian

-- 
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/


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