Date published: 2005/08/10
The BBC says:
Judges could risk Britain's security by opposing new proposed anti-terror laws, Tory leader Michael Howard has said.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Howard warned judges not to thwart the wishes of Parliament.
He argued it was the job of MPs to balance new counter-terrorism measures against the human rights of suspects.
But the lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, said: "I don't think one should try to see it as a conflict between judges and the executive."
Tony Blair recently said the laws passed by Parliament should be upheld.
Mr Howard says he does not believe judges are being wilfully difficult.
He blames the government for drawing the courts into the "political sphere" by passing the Human Rights Act, which means judges have to decide whether new laws are proportionate to their intended effect.
The Conservative leader says the judiciary, together with the government and Opposition, have a duty to play its part in combating the terrorism threat.
But he says he is worried that "judicial activism" has reached unprecedented level in obstructing MPs.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he said: "Parliament must be supreme. Aggressive judicial activism will not only undermine the public's confidence in the impartiality of our judiciary.
"It could also put our security at risk - and with it the freedoms the judges seek to defend. That would be a price we cannot be expected to pay."
Mr Howard cites the House of Lords' ruling that it was illegal to detain foreign terror suspects in Belmarsh Prison as an example of judicial interference.
He complains in particular about Lord Hoffman's comment in the Belmarsh judgement that "the real threat to the life of the nation... comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these."
Unfortunately Mr Howard seems to want to outdo Mr Blair in whinging. If Parliament or the government does things illegally it is up to the courts to say so. Lord Hoffman was spot on. Unfortunately in Britain the legislative branch is under the thumb of the executive, and so it is only the judicial branch which stands in the way of total dictatorship. And the executive and legislative are so useless that the judiciary has to clean up the mess time and again. Fortunately we will be rid of Howard within the year and Blair within a few years. (Not that the clone control freaks who replace them will be any better.)
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