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17 July 2015 / Alec Samuels
Issue: 7661 / Categories: Features , Human rights
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Back to the future

Alec Samuels puts the case for the reform of European human rights law

The English legal system served us fairly well before the advent of European human rights. European human rights law has created a vast body of jurisprudence, an extra tier in litigation, and has produced a number of problems and anomalies and even abuses.

National security

Nothing can be more important in national life than public safety and national security. Is it not for the UK Parliament to determine the degree of infringement of personal liberty, eg control orders against suspected terrorists, telephone tapping, retention of criminal records, with the appropriate judicial safeguards?

Deportation

A convicted foreign national was ordered to be deported. Anticipating conviction and deportation he married a UK citizen and pleaded family hardship (Art 8). A criminal conviction often inflicts hardship upon the family, a regrettable consequence.

Sex offender

A foreign national was convicted of sexual offences and ordered to be deported. Because sexual offences were not well regarded in his own state he pleaded threat to life

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Haynes Boone—Louise Woods

Haynes Boone—Louise Woods

Haynes Boone expands global capabilities with addition of Louise Woods as chair of international disputes

DWF—John Gilfedder

DWF—John Gilfedder

DWF strengthens Global Risks practice with strategic hire of aviation partner in London

Shakespeare Martineau—10 newly qualified solicitors

Shakespeare Martineau—10 newly qualified solicitors

Shakespeare Martineau appoints newly qualified solicitors

NEWS
Developers in areas with poorly performing councils can apply directly to the Planning Inspectorate for permission under section 62A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990
A divorced woman has secured funding to participate in her former husband’s inquest after the Legal Aid Agency reconsidered repeated refusals
The Thirlwall Inquiry has exposed a ‘complete failure’ to protect babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, but its recommendations must now be put into practice
More than 500 former rugby players can pursue brain injury claims despite serious failures to disclose documents ordered by the High Court
MPs cannot simply resign their Commons seats. Instead, they take a nominal Crown office, usually the Chiltern Hundreds or Manor of Northstead, which disqualifies them from sitting
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