Leslie Thomas: a voice for the dead – The Guardian
“Witnessing blatant police cruelty convinced the award-winning lawyer to make deaths in custody his life’s work.”
The Guardian, 21st May 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Category: human rights
Myths and Realities about Equal Marriage – UK Human Rights Blog
“The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill is back before Parliament today for the ‘Report Stage’. The latest version of the Bill is here, updated explanatory notes here, and the full list of proposed amendments here. Predictably, the amendments are the focus of much controversy.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 20th May 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
Roundtable: immigration – Law Society’s Gazette
“Immigration has proved a toxic issue for recent Home Office ministers. In 2004 home secretary David Blunkett resigned following revelations that a visa application had been fast-tracked. Immigration minister Beverley Hughes resigned after admitting she ‘unwittingly’ misled people about a suspected visa ‘scam’. Charles Clarke resigned as home secretary in 2006 after intense pressure over the release of foreign prisoners who could have been deported at the end of their custodial term.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 20th May 2013
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
Abu Qatada launches fresh bid to be released from prison – The Independent
“Radical cleric Abu Qatada will launch a fresh bid for freedom today as he seeks to be released from prison at an immigration tribunal.”
The Independent, 20th May 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
Will the new criminal legal aid reforms breach the right to a fair trial? – UK Human Rights Blog
“One of the most contentious proposals in the Consultation Paper on the transforming legal aid is the removal of client choice in criminal cases. Under the proposals contracts for the provision of legal aid will be awarded to a limited number of firms in an area. The areas are similar to the existing CPS areas. The Green Paper anticipates that there will be four or five such providers in each area. Thus the county of Kent, for example, will have four or five providers in an area currently served by fifty or so legal aid firms. Each area will have a limited number providers that will offer it is argued economies of scale.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 16th May 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
Government response to the report on the operation in 2012 of the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Act 2011 – Home Office
“The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Theresa May): In accordance with section 20(2), 20(3), 20(4) and 20(5) of the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Act 2011, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation (David Anderson QC) prepared a report on the operation of the Act in 2012, which I laid before the House on 14 March 2013.”
Home Office, 16th May 2013
Source: www.gov.uk/home-office
Housing benefit changes legal test to begin at High Court – BBC News
“A legal test is set to begin into the government’s decision to cut housing benefit for recipients living in properties that have a spare room.”
BBC News, 15th May 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Regina (Faulkner) v Secretary of State for Justice and another; Regina (Sturnham) v Parole Board and another – WLR Daily
“Where it was established on a balance of probabilities that a delay in holding a hearing before the Parole Board, in violation of art 5.4 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, had resulted in the detention of a prisoner beyond the date when he would otherwise have been released, damages should ordinarily be awarded as compensation for the resultant detention.”
WLR Daily, 1st May 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
93-year-old former serviceman loses ruling on expats voting in UK elections – The Independent
“A 93-year-old former British serviceman vowed to spend the rest of his life, if necessary, fighting for the right to vote after Strasbourg judges rejected his case.”
The Independent, 7th May 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
Regina (JL) v Secretary of State for Defence – WLR Daily
Regina (JL) v Secretary of State for Defence [2013] EWCA Civ 449; [2013] WLR (D) 161
The occupant of a house was entitled to rely upon article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, entitling the occupant to a proportionality review, by way of opposition to the enforcement of a possession order already obtained by the owner in the exceptional circumstances where there had been a substantial change of circumstances which gave rise for the first time to an article 8 issue which neither was nor could have been pursued prior to the making of the possession order.
WLR Daily, 30th April 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Sex offenders secretly removed from register – Daily Telegraph
“Convicted sex offenders, including paedophiles and rapists, have been secretly from the Sex Offenders’ Register, it has been revealed.”
Daily Telegraph, 7th May 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Regina (HC) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and another (Coram Children’s Legal Centre and another intervening) – WLR Daily
“It was contrary to article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and consequently unlawful, for the Secretary of State for the Home Department to direct, as she had done through Code C of the Code of Practice under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (‘PACE Code C’), that 17-year-olds might be treated as adults when in police detention.”
WLR Daily, 25th April 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Guidance from the Supreme Court on human rights damages – UK Human Rights Blog
“Faulkner, R (on the application of ) v Secretary of State for Justice and another [2013] UKSC 23. The Supreme Court has taken a fresh look at what is meant by the Human Rights Act exhortation to take Strasbourg jurisprudence ‘into account’ when fashioning remedies for violations of Convention rights, in this case the right not to be arbitrarily detained under Article 5.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 2nd May 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
When is Article 8 available at the enforcement stage of the eviction process? – NearlyLegal
“In R (JL) v SSD [2013] EWCA Civ 449, the Court of Appeal ‘broke new ground’ by considering how Article 8 applied to the stage at which possession orders are enforced.”
NearlyLegal, 1st May 2013
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
Article 8 and enhanced criminal record certificates –
“There have been a number of Panopticon posts about the lawfulness of disclosures in enhanced criminal record certificates. The latest decision is that of Mr Justice Stuart-Smith in R (L) v Chief Constable of Cumbria Constabulary [2013] EWHC 869 (Admin).”
Panopticon, 30th April 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
Chagossians: Wikileaks cables not admissible in court – UK Human Rights Blog
“Bancoult v. Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Divisional Court, Richards LJ and Mitting J, 16-24 April 2013, judgment awaited. A quick update at the end of the recent judicial review on 24 April by Mr Bancoult on behalf of the Chagossian islanders, but before judgment. The challenge was to the designation of the waters around their islands as a ‘no take’ Marine Protected Area, i.e. one which could not be fished.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 28th April 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
Home Office fury as drug dealer immigrant wins right to stay in UK – Daily Telegraph
“A judge’s decision to allow a convicted drug dealer who abandoned his children
the right to stay in Britain over his ‘human rights’ is at the centre of
mounting political protest.”
Daily Telegraph, 27th April 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Jeff King: Deference, Dialogue and Animal Defenders International – UK Constitutional Law Group
“In Animal Defenders International, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the British ban on political advertising in the broadcast media (s.321 Communications Act 2003), consistently with the judgments of the UK House of Lords and High Court, but in an apparent departure from its previous caselaw in the VgT (Verein gegen Tierfabrik v. Switzerland, no. 24699/94 ECHR 2001‑VI) case. The key issue in the case was whether a blanket ban (or ‘general measure’) was a proportionate restriction of the freedom of expression, or whether some class of exception (a ‘case-by-case’ approach) for groups such as the NGO in this case ought to be recognized.”
UK Constitutional Law Group, 25th April 2013
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org/blog
Another blow for Theresa May: treating 17-year-olds in custody as adults ‘incompatible’ with human rights law – The Independent
“A teenager has won a High Court victory over the Home Secretary Theresa May’s policy of treating 17-year-olds taken into custody as adults – depriving them of protections offered to those aged 16 and under.”
The Independent, 25th April 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
Death Row, Human Rights and the Limits of the Law – Criminal Law and Justice Weekly
“Although both the law surrounding human rights and the use of judicial review to uphold it have grown exponentially in the UK in recent times, there are still plenty of jurisdictions where even fundamental principles of justice are not respected with any consistency. It is not surprising, therefore, that the last decade has seen a number of cases where those faced with perceived injustice abroad turn homewards for redress.”
Criminal Law and Justice Weekly, 20th April 2013
Source: www.criminallawandjustice.co.uk
