Tag: Prisoners’ Rights
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Alex Schymyck: Vulnerable Detainees in Prison Illustrate the Need for Consistency as a Ground of Review
In R (MR (Pakistan)) v Secretary of State for Justice & Others, the High Court rejected a claim that the inequality in procedural protections available to vulnerable immigration detainees, which depend significantly on the venue of detention, is irrational. The nature of the decision, which fails to properly evaluate the reasons advanced for the difference,…
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Andrew Geddis: Restoring the Voting Rights of (Some) New Zealand Prisoners
The issue of whether prisoners should have the right to vote (and, if so, which prisoners) has long troubled a number of democracies. The current position in the United Kingdom is that no prisoner serving a custodial sentence after conviction can vote, albeit that the Scottish and Welsh Assemblies currently are taking steps to allow…
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Andrew Geddis: New Zealand’s Supreme Court Considers Prisoner Voting – Twice
New Zealand’s Supreme Court has twice in the past two months turned its attention to the vexed issue of prisoner voting. Its first decision, Attorney-General v Taylor, upheld by a 3-2 majority a declaration that the legislative ban on all sentenced prisoners voting is inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (NZBORA).…
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HRA Watch: Reform, Repeal, Replace? Elizabeth Stokes: Prisoners’ Rights in Context: What Future under a British Bill of Rights?
Editors’ note: The blog is inviting constitutional lawyers to comment on the UK Government’s proposal to repeal and replace the Human Rights Act. We continue with a post by Elizabeth Stokes, Senior Lecturer at the School of Business & Law, University of East London. You can read the other contributions in this series here. Posts on the…
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Paul Reid: Independence, the referendum, the franchise and prisoners: stormy waters ahead?
The Scottish Parliament has started giving legislative effect to the Edinburgh Agreement that was signed in October 2012. The first measure to be brought before the Parliament earlier this week was the Scottish Independence Referendum (Franchise) Bill. It is a fairly short Bill, both in length and time: once enacted it will be automatically repealed…
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Colm O’Cinneide: Prisoners Votes (Again) and the ‘Constitutional Illegitimacy’ of the ECHR
The relationship between the UK and the European Court of Human Rights is once again in the news. On the 22th May last, the Grand Chamber of the Strasbourg Court delivered its judgment in Scoppola v. Italy (No. 3), Application No. 126/05. This decision marks a potentially decisive moment in the long-running saga of prisoner…
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Jeff King: Should prisoners have the right to vote?
I think they should, and want to explain why in a way that addresses the issue recently faced by the courts and by Parliament. The prisoner voting saga culminated in the Hirst v UK (No.2) [2005] ECHR 681 case before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, and the nearly five hour…