Government Contempt For Rule Of Law

The Law Lords have ruled that the law used to detain foreign terrorist suspects without trial conflicts with the Human Rights Act, is discriminatory, and incompatible with the rule of law.


The BBC reports:

Detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial breaks human rights laws, the UK's highest court has ruled.


In a blow to the government's anti-terror measures, the House of Lords ruled by an eight to one majority in favour of appeals by nine detainees.


The Law Lords said the measures were incompatible with European human rights laws, but Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the men would remain in prison.


He said the measures would "remain in force" until the law was reviewed.


Most of the men are being held indefinitely in Belmarsh prison, south London.

Law Lords ruling in full (382kb pdf file)


The Government has known all along the anti-terrorist measures are a violation of established principles of English law, including habeas corpus, which has applied to Englishman and foreigner alike.


The problem is that the Government has contempt for legal restraints on its actions, and for the idea of due process.


Ever since the Government came to power it has been trying to throw off the yoke of the traditional principles of criminal law and due process in favour of flexible administrative powers and penalties:

• So we have anti terrorist measures which allow potentially indefinite detention, without trial or cause, on the basis of suspicion;
• We have the Proceeds of Crime Act, which allows the confiscation of money and other assets from people, on the basis of suspicion and without at any point having to secure a conviction (even following an acquittal), and where the onus is then on the victim of the confiscation to prove their right to the assets;
• The Proceeds of Crime Act also turns professional advisers and others into secret state informers, as they are obliged to report in secret any suspicion they may have that their client may hold assets wrongfully (including, for example, trivial amounts of unpaid tax);
• We have ASBOs - which enable the courts (on the basis of hearsay and a civil burden of proof) to restrain people from doing virtually anything or visiting anywhere, for potentially indefinite durations, in cases where they may not even have committed an offence. Breach of an ASBO is a criminal offence carrying a penalty of up to 5 years in prison, and effectively allows the authorities to invent new crimes tailored to individual people.