Tag: Overseas Operation (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill
-
Ronan Cormacain: Protecting Veterans or Protecting the Ministry of Defence? Clarity in the Overseas Operations Bill
Legislation needs to be clear so that citizens can understand it and parliamentarians know what they are voting for. The need for clarity in legislation is set out as the first principle of Bingham’s definition of the Rule of Law, and the need for intelligibility in legislation is a requirement of the Venice Commission Checklist…
-
Stuart Wallace: A Triple Threat to the Rule of Law
As I watched Lord Judge’s eloquent defence of the rule of the law in the House of Lords last week, I couldn’t help but feel that, as a nation, the UK is at a crossroads regarding its adherence to the rule of law. A trio of threats to the rule of law present themselves in…
-
Samuel Beswick: Marching Against Dicey’s Rule of Law
Professor Albert Venn Dicey—one of the “great cataloguers of the British constitution”—dedicated a full chapter of his seminal treatise, The Law of the Constitution, to the constitutional status of the UK’s Armed Forces. His writing is illuminating to revisit given current debates over the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill. Dicey foregrounds a constitutional…
-
Christopher McCrudden: Why the European Union must insist that the UK remains committed to the European Convention on Human Rights
In the next few days and weeks, the EU and the UK must decide whether they both really want a future relations agreement. Both sides have agreed to step up their face-to-face meetings. To achieve an agreement, it looks like compromises will be required. It was ever thus — that is the nature of international…
-
Bethany Shiner and Tanzil Chowdhury: The Overseas Operation (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill and Impunity of the British State
The Overseas Operation (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill was introduced in the House of Commons in March 2020 and is due its second reading on 23 September 2020. In short, the Bill aims to limit prosecution and civil proceedings against military personnel, as well as to enable the UK government to derogate from the European…