Constitutional, Legal and EU issues
How Free Should Speech Be: Where Should the Law Stop?
In the UK, Free Speech has long been seen as a basic liberty. But over the years the law has become more complex. Other rights have been given legal protection, sometimes, it is feared, at the expense of free speech.
The Cost to Justice: Government Policy and the Magistrates' Courts
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Stanley Brodie
2011
Magistrates have been at the heart of the justice system for over 600 years, dispensing justice at the local level and binding people to keep the peace. They do their work for free. The arrangement should be seen as a model for a 'big society' and the voluntary service which the Coalition seeks to promote.
Cuts in the Courts System - Shrinking the Magistrates' Courts or the Courts Service?
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What policy will best promote a 'big society'?
On Wednesday 16th March Stanley Brodie QC and David Howarth, an academic lawyer and former Lib Dem Shadow Justice Secretary, discussed the Coalition's plans to cut around one third of the magistrates' courts. They considered such questions as:
- Will the plan meet the government’s aims of reducing costs?
- How can cutting magistrates’ courts be consistent with promoting the voluntary sector and the 'big society'?
- What will the consequences of change for justice and the courts system be?
- What alternative solutions are there?
- How should the government proceed to promote its own aims and ensure access to justice?
To view details of this event, click here.
The EU Bill, the UK and British Sovereignty: With whom will power lie?
Speaking at Politeia Martin Howe, QC and Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP consider the new EU Bill.
Jacob Rees-Mogg suggests the measure...
- Makes European integration more difficult for politicians to push through.
- Needs some improvement, e.g. the phrasing of the sovereignty clause.
Martin Howe, who proposed the sovereignty measure, considers:
- How far the EU Bill will promotes the government’s aims?
- What other steps are needed so that EU law-making is accountable to parliament?
Watch the rest of the seminar.
Read Jacob Rees-Mogg's speech to the Commons on the EU Bill and the sovereignty clause.
Read Martin Howe's Politeia pamphlet Safeguarding Sovereignty: A Bill for UK Constitutional Rights in the EU.
Politeia would like to thank BPP for supporting this event.
Human Rights Debate
As the UK Government bows to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and prepares to give offenders the vote, Politeia’s next author explains voting rights are not human rights:
