The European Commission has begun a consultation process to explore the impact of pre-trial detention in the European Union (EU). The particular focus, summarised in its Green Paper, is how pre-trial detention issues affect judicial co-operation generally within the EU. The issue is being debated at the moment in the UK, with a group of MPs urging [...]
Archive for the ‘Prisons’ Category
Tiny cells, violence and language barriers: the life of a European prisoner?
Posted in Art. 3 | Torture / Inhumane Treatment, Criminal, European, Immigration/Extradition, In the news, International, Prisons, tagged Pre-trial detention, Prisoners on June 22, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Religious freedom doesn’t stop at the prison gate
Posted in Art. 9 | Thought/Conscience/Religion, Case law, Case summaries, In the news, Prisons, Religion on June 7, 2011 | 4 Comments »
R (Imran Bashir) v. The Independent Adjudicator, HMP Ryehill and the Secretary of State for Justice [2011] EWHC 1108 – read judgment here. 1 Crown Office Row’s John Joliffe appeared for the Secretary of State for Justice in this case. He is not the writer of this post. The High Court held last week that disciplining a [...]
Tick tock tick tock
Posted in Case summaries, European, In the news, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections, tagged prisoner votes on April 13, 2011 | 12 Comments »
The clock is ticking again on prisoner votes. The European Court of Human Rights has rejected the UK government’s latest appeal in the long-running saga. The UK had attempted to appeal the recent decision in Greens and M.T. v. the United Kingdom. The full background can be found in my previous post, in which I predicted [...]
Prisoner votes: EU won’t help
Posted in Case summaries, European, In the news, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections on April 13, 2011 | 3 Comments »
George McGeogh for Judicial Review of the Compatibility with the Petitioner’s EU law rights of the Decision of the Electoral Registration Officer , Outer House, Court of Session [2011] CSOH 65, 08 April 2011 (Lord Tyre) – Read opinion This was an attempt by a prisoner to argue that his disenfranchisement under Section 3 of the Representation [...]
Purpose, policy and publication: Analysis of Lumba ruling
Posted in Art. 5 | Right to Liberty, Case comments, Criminal, Damages, In the news, Politics / Public Order, Prisons, Public/Private on March 30, 2011 |
Lumba v Secretary of State for the Home Deparment – a case of driving government policy further underground? We have already reported on this appeal by three foreign nationals who have served sentences of imprisonment in this country (“FNPs”). They were detained pursuant to Schedule 3 of the Immigration Act 1971 and their challenge to [...]
Prisoners not entitled to compensation for voting ban
Posted in Case law, Case summaries, In the news, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections on February 19, 2011 |
Tovey & Ors v Ministry of Justice [2011] EWHC 271 (QB) (18 February 2011) – read judgment. In a case heard the day before Parliament debated whether it should amend the law preventing prisoners from voting, the High Court struck out a claim for compensation by a prisoner in respect of his disenfranchisement. Although it [...]
Prisoner votes: a ping pong ball in a wind tunnel
Posted in European, In the news, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections, tagged prison vote, prisoner votes on February 10, 2011 | 10 Comments »
Updated | Parliament is currently debating on whether prisoners should be given the vote. The motion can be found here and you can watch the debate on Parliament TV. A Washington Post correspondent recently said US President Barack Obama had been “bounding around like a ping-pong ball in a wind tunnel” on to the situation [...]
No right for prisoner to wear Easter lily
Posted in Art. 10 | Freedom of Expression, Case comments, Politics / Public Order, Prisons on February 10, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The recent critics of Strasbourg judicial activism will, doubtless, be pleased by the Court’s latest Article 10 decision. Free speech campaigners may have more mixed views. In the case of Donaldson v United Kingdom ([2011] ECHR 210) the Fourth Section held that the application of a serving Republican prisoner alleging a violation of his rights under [...]
Prisoner voting and the £160m question
Posted in In the news, Politics / Public Order, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections, tagged prisoner vote on January 20, 2011 | 9 Comments »
The government has reportedly revised its plan to allow prisoners serving less than 4 years to vote in elections. Ministers now seek to limit the right to those sentenced to a year or less. A looming presence in the debate has been the much-touted figure of £160m compensation which the prime minister has warned Parliament [...]
Please release me
Posted in Art. 5 | Right to Liberty, Case summaries, Criminal, Prisons, tagged Court Orders, Detention, Liberty, unlawful detention on December 24, 2010 |
Stellato v Ministry of Justice [2010] EWCA Civ 1435 – Read judgment The court of appeal has ruled that when a court set a deadline for a prisoner’s release, that deadline could was not lawfully extended simply because a court needed time to hear an appeal against the decision to release him. In other words, [...]
Court of appeal rejects prisoner vote plea, government announces plans
Posted in Case summaries, European, In the news, Politics / Public Order, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections, tagged prisoner vote on December 17, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Chester v Secretary of State for Justice & Anor [2010] EWCA Civ 1439 (17 December 2010) – Read judgment The Court of Appeal has rejected a claim by a man convicted of raping and murdering a seven-year-old girl that the court should grant him the right to vote. Meanwhile, following the judgment the government has [...]
“Radical” criminal justice reforms unveiled
Posted in Criminal, In the news, Police, Prisons on December 7, 2010 | 1 Comment »
The arrest of Wikileaks chief Julian Assange has meant that the Ministry of Justice’s “radical” reform program for the criminal justice system has received less attention then it might otherwise have. Although clearly accidental, the timing may suit the justice secretary, who has received criticism from within his own party in relation to his plans [...]
Europe sets deadline for UK to let prisoners vote, or else
Posted in Case summaries, European, In the news, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections, tagged prisoner vote on November 23, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Updated | Greens and M.T. v. the United Kingdom (application nos. 60041/08 & 60054/08) – Read judgment / press release (which the case summary below is based on) The European Court of Human Rights is to give the UK a deadline of six months in order to allow prisoners to vote in elections, or it [...]
Council of Europe warns UK again over prisoner voting rights
Posted in In the news, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections on November 19, 2010 | 2 Comments »
The Council of Europe, which monitors compliance with European Court of Human Rights judgments, has warned the United Kingdom to stop dragging its feet over the implementation of judgments on politically sensitive issues. In a draft resolution, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, which was unanimously adopted on 17 November 2010, said: The [...]





Did the UK misuse European court process on prisoner votes? – Dr Ed Bates
Posted in Case comments, European, In the news, Prisons, Protocol 1 Art. 3 | Free elections, tagged prisoner votes on April 15, 2011 | 5 Comments »
The recent rejection, by a panel of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, of the British government’s attempt to overturn the ruling in Greens and MT v United Kingdom (prisoner voting) case, brings into focus the role of the Strasbourg Grand Chamber. In this post I attempt to highlight how the [...]
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