Category: united states

The Round-Up: Constitutional Commotions, Council Housing and Article 8, and the A6 Compatibility of ASBO Legislation

27 May 2018 by Eleanor Leydon

Image Credit: The Guardian

In a landmark moment for women’s rights, the Irish electorate has voted in favour of abolishing the 8^th Amendment by a stunning two-thirds majority of 1,429,981 votes to 723,632.

Whilst abortion has long been illegal in Ireland under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, the notorious 8^th Amendment, which gives the foetus’ right to life absolute parity with that of the woman carrying it, was enacted after a 1983 referendum lobbied for by pro-life activists. By virtue of the amendment:

“The state acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.”

Lawyers for Yes emphasised that the amendment created ‘absolute legal paralysis in dealing with crisis pregnancies’ and had to be repealed if women in Ireland were to receive ‘appropriate’ and ‘compassionate’ healthcare. Also on the UKHRB, Rosalind English shares a powerful analysis of the extraordinary nature of the legal obligations imposed on women’s bodies by this provision.

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Free Trade Agreements and the White House – where are we now?

23 January 2017 by David Hart KC

Trump’s inauguration seems not a bad moment to be having a look at the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs, actual or potential) which are swirling around at the moment, and their likely reception in the changed world which we face.

First on the list, our own tried, tested, and found electorally wanting, EU Treaties. They are FTAs, but with lots of knobs on – free movement of people, of establishment, level playing fields about employment rights, the environment and consumer protection, to name but a few.

The first thing to say is that FTAs, wherever they are, don’t come all that unencumbered these days.
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Shaker Aamer’s release: What happens next?

31 October 2015 by Jim Duffy

And so, thirteen years after his capture, eight years after the US Government cleared him for release, and seven years after President Obama’s spectacularly broken promise to shut down Guantánamo, Shaker Aamer has left the prison, as innocent as the day he went in.

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