Terrorism legislations Flashcards
Public perceptions
The public is increasingly willing to give up its civil liberties in the name of counter-terrorism.
The nature of threat has evolved
The threat posed by violent extremists has ‘evolved’ and is no longer a problem solely stemming from countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Human Rights Act 1998
• Power to judges
The HRA gives judges the power to declare legislation to be ‘incompatible’, which forces politicians to either revise or ‘derogate’ laws; especially when legislation cannot be reconciled with the ECHR.
What is the aim of the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures 2011
Aimed to allow the authorities to force suspects to move to another part of the country.
Human Rights Act 1998
• Example of derogation
the UK is derogated from Article 5 of the ECHR during 2001-2005 in order to pass ‘tougher’ anti-terrorism legislation.
Human Rights Act 1998
• Judges in protecting civil liberties
The HRA substantially widened the capacity of judiciary to protect civil liberties and check the exercise of executive power and legislative power.
Human Rights Act 1998
• Declaration of incompatibility
Since the Human Rights Act came into force in 2000, UK courts have made 29 declarations of incompatibility, of which 20 have become final.
What’s wrong with the HRA
• Sovereignty
Sovereignty lies in Parliament and it has supreme legislative power. This means that parliament has the absolute and unlimited legal authority, as they have the ability to make, amend or repeal any law it wishes.
Problems stemming from the HRA in relation to terrorism
The government failed to hold the nine terrorist suspects who were held in Belmarsh Prison after the Law Lords ruled that their the human rights of were being abused and should be released in December 2004
What were the key elements of the Counter-Terrorism 2008?
1) Enables post-charge questioning of terrorist suspects
2) Amends the definition of terrorism by inserting a racial cause
3) A constable can take fingerprints and DNA samples from individuals
Why was the Counter-Terrorism 2008 introduced?
To gather and share information for counter-terrorism
What is the disadvantage of the Counter-Terrorism 2008?
Amnesty International was concerned that the power included no effective safeguards against arbitrary detention
* It could lead to other abusive detention practices
Failure of the Counter-Terrorism 2008
• Cross-party consensus
Failed to achieve cross-party consensus on a range of proposals, especially over pre-charge detention.
Failure of the Counter-Terrorism 2008
• Labour vote
Only a third of Labour MPs backed extending pre-charge detention beyond 28 days
What was in TPIM 2011
It abolishes control orders through the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005.
