Imagine a country…
Adapted from Charon QC’s post (references added, as were my own points in italics)
Imagine a country where the right to trial by jury has been undermined, where an individual can be tried twice – the rule on double jeopardy abandoned – where well over 3000 new crimes have been enacted in the past ten years; where racial, sexuality and religious tensions are said to need the protection and might of law.
Imagine a country where the spooks can ask for closed trials where neither you nor your lawyers will see the evidence they use to dismiss your claims for damages after you go after them for making you suffer torture, unlawful imprisonment, extraordinary rendition – and the government supports that gross erosion of a critical component of the rule of law (They’ve been using these closed procedures to lock people up for a while now)
Imagine a country where the chief justice and many leading judges fear for the future of justice and civil liberties because the government of that country has eroded civil liberties in the name of countering terror (which the government states ‘threatens the life of the nation’) and has reduced support for those of limited means, and vulnerable people, to fight their corner and pay for lawyers.
Imagine a country where people are imprisoned without charge for 28 days (42 days was defeated), or simply placed under house arrest without charge or actual arrest (only, it’s not house arrest, we’re told – merely confinement to a life where the government can ban you and your loved ones from using the phone, internet, meeting friends, being visited, communicating ‘with people in general’, finding employment you actually want to do, can move you around the country, suspend your passport, submit to any surveillance, searches and seizures are ‘deemed necessary’ – and until the Law Lords of its highest court stepped in to unanimously declare the opposite, you aren’t even made aware of the allegations and couldn’t thus instruct your lawyer)
Imagine a country where the right to speak freely is restricted and individuals can be threatened by lawyers who can simply telephone a judge in Chambers to restrict them from speaking out, on what may well be a matter of great public importance, to protect sectional and very private corporate interests, where attempts to restrict the reporting of the proceedings of the press are routinely granted through the use of super-injunctions and, latterly, a country with laws which allowed lawyers to attempt to restrict the reporting of proceedings in parliament itself.
Imagine a country that leads the world in CCTV surveillance with more cameras per head of population than any other on Earth – even if each camera has only a 1 in 1000 chance of solving a single crime a year.
Imagine a country where not only the police but local authorities and other civilian bodies can routinely spy on you, intercept your email, bug your phone and can intrude to examine your bank accounts and then, even for quite minor offences, can seize your assets, freeze your bank account and seize and crush your car; powers intended to tackle terror and organised crime but which now will, inevitably, be used for far less serious offences.
Imagine a country which has restricted the money paid to experienced criminal lawyers with the result that many lawyers can no longer afford to practice in the field and the quality of representation may decline as a result.
Imagine a country with over 85,000 people in jail, a country where the Justice Ministry wants yet more prisons and even considered hiring prison ships from elsewhere.
Imagine a country where the government uses the device of statutory instrument to slide controversial legislation through into law without the eyes of the public, expert commentators or members of parliament being able to see, or objective minds, to consider those laws.
Imagine a country that justifies going to war on the basis of a ricin plot that never was – only, the public only finds out two years later, when a blanket press ban is lifted, showing that the government continued to claim a ricin plot despite no ricin being found -
Imagine a country that allows the prime minister to wage war without the consent of the elected representatives of the people…
You don’t need to imagine such a country. You are living in it.
Edit: from a comment on Charon QC’s blog:
Imagine a country that allows its citizens to be extradited to other countries without the requirement to provide prima facie evidence.
Imagine a county that allows unaccountable officials to take children away from their families,http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/camilla_cavendish/article4303324.ece
Imagine a country where breaking a civil order can result in up to five years imprisonment.
Imagine a country where it is proposed that police patrol with sub-machine guns.
Imagine a country that keeps the DNA profiles of over 4 million of its citizens on a giant database, including 24,000 profiles of children and young people aged from 10 to 18 who have never been convicted, cautioned or charged with any offence.
Imagine a country where two police officers are not allowed to look after each other’s children.
Imagine a country where an estimated 11 million people will need criminal records checks, just so that they can continue working with children.
Imagine a country where tens of thousand of citizens are being trained to look out for ’suspicious behaviour’:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/mar/31/civil-liberties-human-rights1
Imagine a country where its citizens are encouraged to spy on each other:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2648384/Environmental-volunteers-will-be-encouraged-to-spy-on-their-neighbours.html
Imagine a country with an unelected prime minister
Related:
- Rule of law, Rule of sponsors
- Yesterday, I covered the FIFA courts in South Africa: a commercial/politically-motivated streaming of Cup crime above all others, drawing particularly unfair punishments, all processed in record time. Constitutionally, that’s really quite troubling. But commercial sport’s casts more shadows on the law than that. Let’s not forget the orange ladies that dared to wear minidresses. Part [...]...
- Jabulani Justice
- Faced with the hassle of suing companies like Bavaria or other ‘rogue advertisers’ and minidress wearers, it’s quite clear that FIFA or the Olympics find it far easier to just get our governments to pass draconian criminal laws to ‘get em’ instead. That means that this is a legal system set up (obviously) to placate their commercial interests, not by offering them an opportunity to go after those causing them economic loss, but to pillory – criminally – a few chosen examples. And the South Africans do it in a system of special, steroid-addled courts, at huge financial outlay. Even the Chinese government didn’t ...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.