Scots lawyers warn Cameron new terror proposals could face challenge in European courts. Mike Settle Tuesday 13 January 2015 THE UK Governments proposals to strengthen Britains terror laws have come under fresh fire from Scottish lawyers, who warn that they could be successfully challenged under the European Convention on Human Rights. As peers today prepare to debate the Coalitions Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill - which introduces measures to restrict the movement of terror suspects - the Law Society of Scotland said they represented the biggest restriction on the movement of British citizens since the Second World War. Alan McCreadie, the societys deputy director of law reform, said the plans to block UK nationals from returning if suspected of terrorist activity overseas had never happened in peacetime. The right of abode is an attribute of citizenship and being a citizen is a basis for holding certain rights enforceable under the ECHR, said Mr McCreadie, claiming that empowering the Home Secretary to deprive citizenship was unprecedented in UK legislation. He stressed: The Temporary Exclusion Order should be subject to court procedure prior to imposition and that the imposition of such an order by the Secretary of State without recourse to the courts could be successfully challenged under ECHR. Meantime, the Law Society, which represents lawyers in England and Wales, said the absence of allowing people access to courts and provisions so they could challenge the new powers in the Bill, raised issues with regard to Article 6 of the ECHR; the right to a fair trial. Andrew Caplen, the Societys President, said: While it is appreciated there is a balance to be struck between the threats to national security posed by terrorism and avoiding diminishing civil and human rights, our fundamental liberties must not be forgotten. Already, the Conservative-led Government has been warned, most notably by Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, that if it does not give judges oversight on temporary exclusion orders, then his party and Labour could combine in the Lords to defeat the Bill. As David Cameron insisted lessons would be learned from the terror attacks in France with future counter-terrorism exercises in the UK enacting similar scenarios to those seen in Paris last week, his determination to hand the intelligence services more monitoring powers sparked another warning on human rights; this time from his Coalition deputy. Today, Mr Clegg will use a speech to the Journalists Charity in London to denounce the so-called snoopers charter as a disproportionate move that would spark a dramatic shift in the relationship between the state and the individual. Without naming names, the Deputy Prime Minister will say: The irony appears to be lost on some politicians who say in one breath that they will defend freedom of expression and then in the next advocate a huge encroachment on the freedom of all British citizens.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 08:51:29 +0000
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