Date:
- Tuesday 1st December 2009
Participants:
- Philippe Sands QC, Matrix Chambers
- Lord (Alex) Carlile of Berriew QC - Independent reviewer of terror legislation
- Sir David Omand - Former Security Intelligence Co-ordinator in the Cabinet Office
- David Aaronovitch, The Times
There have been many challenges to the Rule of Law in recent years: jury trial has been abandoned for various categories of offence; habeas corpus has effectively been suspended - indefinitely in the case of foreign terrorist suspects and restricted to detention beyond 28 days in the case of UK nationals; Control Orders, now declared unlawful, have been imposed on several suspects without charge. Away from terrorism, less than half of all ‘offenders brought to justice’ now appear before a court: fixed penalty notices are increasingly used to penalise a widening range of offences both serious and trivial, and in many parts of the country the use of the ASBO has become commonplace.
How worried should we be about these changes to our legal traditions? Has the balance between individual rights and collective security swung too far towards the latter? How can we better guard against the exercise of arbitrary state power?
