Fergal Davis of the Gilbert & Tobin Centre for Public Law at the University of New South Wales has posted a thought-provoking paper on SSRN. Entitled ‘The Jury as a Political Institution in an Age of Counterterrorism’, the abstract is as follows: Trial by jury is under threat. This is particularly true in the context(…)
Some readers may be interested in the recent publication of my monograph, EU Counter-Terrorism Law: Pre-emption & the Rule of Law. The book is the first sustained study of EU legislation in the field of counter-terrorism. It critically examines EU counter-terrorism measures to ascertain how rule of law principles have been affected in the ‘war(…)
This week saw the release of the second report of the current Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation on the operation of the Terrorism Acts. The report is a remarkable work, running to over 140 pages in length, and covering several topics in depth. Although the role requires a report covering the whole legislation, the Reviewer,(…)
In a recent collection of essays on critical legal thinking the editors claim that ‘not only does law increasingly resemble politics, but politics increasingly resembles law’. What emerges is an ‘indistinct fuzzy middle zone’ in which powerful Governments are often glad to operate. However, as law comes to touch on more and more areas of(…)
“The gravity of this case is in my view of a different order from, for example, a murder committed by one individual upon another as a result of some sudden quarrel. There was a degree of general premeditation; it was a racist crime driven by hatred; it involved a gang of like-minded attackers; a lethal(…)
On January 19 next Martin Scheinin, former UN Special Rapporteur for the Protection of Human Rights in the Pursuit of Counter-Terrorism and Professor of International Law at the European University Institute will give a lecture entitled “UN Security Council Terrorist Listing and Judicial Review: The Current State of Play”. The lecture, hosted by the Centre of(…)
Gary Dobson & David Norris have been found guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. The Lawrence murder and the failure of the Metropolitan Police Service in dealing with it prompted a damning report from Lord Macpherson following an Inquiry that concluded in 1999. The report famously described the Metropolitan Police Service as(…)
The exploitation of Ireland’s natural resources has given rise to some of our livelier posts of the past year. 2012 may see an ‘anti-fracking’ campaign in Clare join the Shell to Sea campaign on the battlefield over the state’s efforts to exploit natural resources in the West of Ireland. ‘Fracking’ is shorthand for a process(…)
Last Wednesday, the European Court of Justice issued a flurry of judgments just before the Christmas break. Indeed, there were so many interesting and important decisions amongst the twenty or so handed down that seems foolish to consider any of them the ‘most important’. Nonetheless the judgment in NS and Others v SSHD (C-411/10) must be(…)
One could be forgiven, amidst the furore over the European Court of Human Rights’ Al-Khawaja judgment last Thursday, for missing the first report of the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation on the operation of the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc Act 2010. The Report runs to over 100 pages and is the most comprehensive account of UK(…)
