How Far Can Anti-Terrorism Legislation,in the British Context, Threaten Democrat...

Law Essay Title: How Far Can Anti-Terrorism Legislation,in the British Context, Threaten Democratic Legal Principles and Civil Liberties?,

The client is however, still open to suggestions as to the actual title of the piece.


D Feldman 'Civil Liberties and Human Rights in England & Wales' 2nd ed. Oxford UP, 2002. C. Gearty 'Reconciling Parliamentary Democracy and Human Rights' Law Quarterly Review 248. T Campbell, K Ewing and A Tomkins 'Sceptical Essays on Human Rights'(particularly the chapters by Loughlin, Ewing and Walker and the comparative chapters at the end). C. Gearty 'Revisiting Section 3(1) of the HRA' [2003] LQR 551. K Ewing 'The Futility of the HRA' Public Law [2004] 829. M Hunt 'Sovereignty's Blight: Why Contemporary Public Law Need the Concept of Due Deference' in Bamforth and Leyland 'Public Law in a Multi-Layered Constitution', Hart, 2003. Also in this volume, see: M Taggart 'Reinventing Administrative Law 'and C Gearty 'Civil Liberties and Human Rights'. R Clayton 'Judicial Deference and the Democratic Dialogue, the Legitimacy of Judicial Intervention Under The HRA [2004] Public Law 33. Lord Steyn 'Deference a Tangled Story' [2005] Public law 346. D Nichol 'The Human Rights Act and the Politicians' (2004) Legal Studies 452. F Klug and K Starmer 'Standing Back from the HRA: how effective is it five years on? [2005] Public Law 716.
The client would like a Title page, headings,subheadings and an appendix. Ideally, an Introduction, four chapters and a Conclusion. The first chapter ought to be laying out the Government's challenge and position. Within this, the new proposals, perhaps a brief history of anti-terror legislation with reference to Northern Ireland. The identifying of a pattern of thought: For example, that such measures are based on the assumption that the state has a wider duty to protect the community and that in order to do so, it can suspend basic civil rights and freedoms. Then a discussion of how the change in domestic law- namely the incorporation of the Human Rights Act- will/ought to affect such assumptions and legislation. (D FELDMAN 'CIVIL LIBERTIES' IN V BOGDANOR (ED) THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, OXFORD, 2003) Second Chapter ought to be on how the debate fits into the whole ambiance of civil rights legislation. Within this the client was thinking of some theory on the nature of civil Liberties and Human Rights, and analysing the changing approach to these in the UK. (EWING AND GEARTY 'FREEDOM UNDER THATCHER' ALSO THE FIRST CHAPTER OF EWING AND GEARTY 'THE STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES' OXFORD UP 2000.) Then some discussion on the Human Rights Act itself- the Scheme itself, and its aims, but the bulk of the chapter would be to undertake an analysis of what measures would be be valid when tested against the ECHR. Here, talk about the Belmarsh Detainees case and what we ought to draw from this, but ultimately demonstrate that the expectations we have of the Human Rights Act ought to be informed by an understanding of our multi-layered constitution (Talk of notions such as Parliamentary Sovereignty, the reconciling of Parliamentary Democracy and Human Rights, the constitutional balance between the courts and the executive etc). There is also the torture case and some other decisions that may be worth looking at. The Third Chapter could then be a detailed analysis of the tools courts use- namely the proportionality Principle, the notion of a margin of appreciation and due deference- and the implications of these and their impact in practice. There is a big debate here and it often comes down to views on the degree of Judical intervention. LOOK AT JOWELL AND ALSO MURRAY HUNTS ARTICLE IN BAMFORTH AND LEYLAND PUBLIC LAW IN A MULTI-LAYERED CONSTITUTION. LOOK ALSO A THE CAMPBELL ET AL SCEPTICAL ESSAYS ON HUMAN RIGHTS. The fourth could then be an informed discussion on how far the Human rights Act is doing its job in light of all the above and perhaps a comparison with other jurisdictions with different constructional frameworks.the client is aware that all this is fairly specific but the client am very flexible; the sections can overlap, be longer than anticipated and/or contain different material.