3. Human Rights Protections – National Security and Criminal Justice

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the (potential) erosion of human rights in the United Kingdom, focusing in particular on the areas of national security and criminal justice. As we move through the module, we think about: (i) the legislative response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th; (ii) the use of pre-existing legislation (developed during the Troubles in Northern Ireland) and the creation of new legislation; (iii) the ‘Belmarsh 9’ case, which held that the indefinite detention of foreign prisoners without trial was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights – and the government’s response to that ruling; (iv) the erosion of human rights in the area of criminal justice, in particular the introduction of anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) in 1998.

Course

In this course, Dr Matthew Williams (University of Oxford) explores the development of civil liberties and human rights protection in the UK through the question ‘Civil liberties and human rights have been eroded in recent years. Discuss.’ In the first module, we introduce the question itself and think about some of the things to think about when answering any essay question of this kind. In the second module, we think about the history of rights protection in the UK from Magna Carta onwards, before turning in the third and fourth modules to four substantive areas of law in which human rights and civil liberties have arguably been ‘eroded’ – national security, criminal justice, the right to protest, and data protection. In the fifth module, we think about how procedural changes have impacted human rights and civil liberties protections, in particular some of the procedures laid out by the Human Rights Act (1998), before turning in the sixth and final module to consider the potential impact of Brexit on human rights and civil liberties protection in the UK.

Lecturer

Dr Matthew Williams is Access and Career Development Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. His research focuses on the the language of politics, especially how the language of legislation has changed over the previous century. His recent publications include How Language Works in Politics: The Impact of Vague Legislation on Policy (2018).