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Crime and Justice Blogs
One small step for prison reform
Prisons must be safe before rehabilitation can take place – Policy Exchange’s Director of Research and Strategy looks at the Justice Secretary’s latest place for prison reform.
Special Briefing on the Worboys Case
Why are elected ministers are powerless in the face of the release of a serious offender? Policy Exchange’s Director of Research Rupert Oldham-Reid explores how politicians and the judiciary have transferred power (and hard decisions) from elected representatives to unelected officials.
Gunnar Beck: Beware of Germany’s proposal for a new EU-UK transnational court
Dr Gunnar Beck — a Visiting Scholar at Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project — responds to German Vice Chancellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sigmar Gabriel’s apparent signal that the EU might be willing to ‘relax some of its more extravagant demands’ in the Brexit negotiations. Beck concludes that while Gabriel’s proposal for a transnational EU-UK court is a ‘promising starting point for the negotiations’, the UK ‘needs assurance that its future legal relationship with the EU [will be] governed by the greatest possible legal certainty and overseen by a court which ensures that words mean what they say and not simply whatever it may be that best suits the European Union’.
The European Court of Justice is not an impartial court and has no role to play in post-Brexit EU-UK relations
Leading authority on EU Law, Dr Gunnar Beck (SOAS), writes for Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project to explain why, as a matter of law, Britain can leave the EU without any liability for any allegedly outstanding sums under the EU budget. Dr Beck dismantles Helena Kennedy QC’s suggestion in the Guardian last week that the EU Court of Justice should have a role in post-Brexit Britain
Derogation from the European Convention on Human Rights in Armed Conflict: Submission to the JCHR
As is now well known, Brexit does not affect the UK’s commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg will continue to be able to determine whether UK law and Government actions are compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)…
Tom Tugendhat MP discusses the “Fog of Law”
Tom Tugendhat MP discusses the enquiry into alleged abuse by British soldiers in Afghanistan on Radio 4.
The Cultural Roots of Crime
Policy Exchange Chairman David Frum discusses the rise and fall of violence in America with criminal-justice scholar Barry Latzer.
Policies for change – the role of the courts
Former First Parliamentary Counsel Sir Stephen Laws describes how judicial review of policy has a chilling effect on political decision making, diminishing democratic accountability.
Who should decide who decides the public interest?
In this post Rebecca Elvin reflects on the separation of powers in the UK constitution and argues that politicians, rather than judges, are best placed to determine the public interest.
The Authorisation Processes for Interception Activities
In this post Lord Carlile CBE QC, Liberal Democrat peer and former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, expresses reservations about the role of judges in the ‘double lock’ authorisation process set out in the draft Investigatory Powers Bill.
