Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees the right to family and private life. It has become a political flashpoint because it frequently centres in headline-grabbing immigration decisions. In reality, its role is to enable … [Read more...] about Changing Article 8 of the ECHR: What is Really Possible?
No aspect of the UK constitution is more contentious at present than our membership of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It has been portrayed as an obstacle to the deportation of foreign criminals and in attempts to curb … [Read more...] about Fact and Fiction: the European Convention on Human Rights
“Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up” – so goes the saying ascribed to G.K. Chesterton. For many years, Chesterton’s Fence was cited to discuss the loss of religion in the post-modern West. In … [Read more...] about Leaving the ECHR and the threat to privacy
Kemi Badenoch has been elected leader of the Conservative Party to renew its thinking. The rationale of her ‘Renewal2030’ campaign is that once the Party can unite around common values again, it can begin the task of winning back the trust … [Read more...] about New Look Conservatives and Constitutional Policy
I began writing this blogpost weeks before the widespread violence and disorder which engulfed the streets of the UK in early August. My task was to review how the new public order legislation, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 … [Read more...] about Riots, Prison and Proportion: Public Order in 2024
Introduction The trial of British citizen Jimmy Lai was criticised by the last Government, and by the international community, as a politically motivated show trial. Former Foreign Secretary David Cameron called for the prosecution of Lai to … [Read more...] about Jimmy Lai: Citizens’ Rights in a Hong Kong Trial
Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told The Sun’s Harry Cole that Britain would leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if it would help to prevent the arrival of small boats of asylum seekers. Sunak said, “I believe that border … [Read more...] about Leaving the ECHR: A Realistic and Viable Proposal?
Former supreme court judge Jonathan Sumption recently wrote a piece for the Spectator entitled, somewhat dramatically, "Judgment call: the case for leaving the ECHR”. In the piece, Sumption makes a series of points concerning the European Convention … [Read more...] about Case Adjourned: A response to Jonathan Sumption’s “case for leaving the ECHR”
