Ian Leigh

Law, politics, and local democracy

PART I: LEGAL AND POLITICAL FOUNDATIONS 1. Local Democracy in its Constitutional Setting 2. The Powers of Local Government PART II: ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE PUBLIC 3. Information, Public Participation, and Accountability 4. Financial Accountability 5. Consumer Accountability PART: III: POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND DECISION-MAKING 6. Party Groups, Councillors, and the Law 7. Executive Structures 8. Officers and Politics PART IV: THE COUNCIL IN THE COMMUNITY 9. Politics and Contracts 10. Local Government, Business, and partnership 11. Conclusion: The New Local Government

Horizontal Rights, the Human Rights Act and Privacy: Lessons from the Commonwealth?

Protection of privacy is one of the areas most often claimed as having the potential for significant development as a result of incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights (“the Convention”). As is well known, English law lacks a general remedy for infringement of privacy per se : although the courts have lamented the lack of protection for private individuals (notably from the press), they have hitherto left it to Parliament to intervene. After flirtation with introducing either a specific statutory code applicable to intrusive journalistic activities or a general statutory tort of infringement of privacy, the Conservative government abandoned the idea altogether. 1 Perhaps because of the lack of legislative concern (politicians, after all, have reasons of strong self-interest not to provoke the press), the judiciary has expressed renewed interest, at least through extra-judicial pronouncements 2 and broad hints in one recent House of Lords decision that the time for reconsideration may be fast approaching. 3

Changing the rules of the game : some necessary legal reforms to United Kingdom intelligence.

This article argues that there is a need to modernise the law governing accountability of the UK security and intelligence agencies following changes in their work in the last decade. Since 9/11 the agencies have come increasingly into the spotlight, especially because of the adoption of controversial counter-terrorism policies by the government (in particular forms of executive detention) and by its international partners, notably the US. The article discusses the options for reform in three specific areas: the use in legal proceedings of evidence obtained by interception of communications; with regard to the increased importance and scle of collaboration with overseas agencies; and to safeguard the political independence of the agencies in the light of their substantially higher public profile. In each it is argued that protection of human rights and the need for public accountability requires a new balance to be struck with the imperatives of national security.

Hatred, Sexual Orientation, Free Speech and Religious Liberty

In recent years, the clash between supporters of religious liberty and sexual orientation equality legislation has led to repeated battles both in Parliament and the courts. First came the clashes over the scope of exemptions in employment discrimination legislation for religious groups. The UK Regulations dealing with employment discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation give a limited exception for �employment for purposes of an organised religion�, which allows an employer to apply a requirement related to sexual orientation to comply with the doctrines of the religion, or to avoid conflicting with the strongly held religious convictions of a significant number of the religions followers. A legal challenge brought to the scope of this exception was unsuccessful but, despite that, the exemption has not averted damaging findings of discrimination against the Church of England. The Bishop of Hereford was held to have discriminated unlawfully in blocking the appointment of a practising homosexual to a youth-officer post within the Church of England. The partial success of religious groups in achieving exemption was followed by defeat in the equivalent regulations dealing with discrimination in goods and services, made under the Equality Act 2006, despite the claims of Catholic adoption agencies that they would rather close than place children with same-sex couples.

The United Kingdom's statutory Bill of Rights : constitutional and comparative perspectives

PART I-THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT IN CONSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE PART II-DOMESTIC PROTECTIONS WITHIN A EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK PART III-A PERMANENT REVOLUTION IN LEGAL REASONING? PART IV-THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT ON THE INTERNATIONAL PLANE PART V-AMENDMENT, REPEAL OR A BILL OF RIGHTS FOR THE UK?

New Trends in Religious Liberty and the European Court of Human Rights

This article analyses recent trends in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights concerned with the right to freedom of thought, belief and religion (Article 9, European Convention on Human Rights) and the right of parents to respect by the state for their religious and philosophical views in the education of their children (Article 2, Protocol 1).1 These developments include notable decisions concerned with protection from religious persecution in Georgia, with religious education in Norway and Turkey and with the display of crucifixes in state schools in Italy. It is apparent that the European Convention religious liberty jurisprudence increasingly stresses the role of the state as a neutral protector of religious freedom. For individuals religious freedom is now also recognised to include not only the right to manifest their religious belief but also freedom from having to declare their religious affiliation. As the religious liberty jurisprudence comes of age, other significant developments, for example in relation to conscientious objection to military service, can be anticipated

Recent Developments in Religious Liberty

This is the first in what is intended as a series of comments on current developments in the law concerning freedom of religion that will appear regularly in this Journal. This first survey deals with religious liberty challenges brought in the UK courts in 2007 and 2008. A subsequent survey will examine similar developments in international human rights law and especially before the European Court of Human Rights.

Rebalancing Rights and National Security: Reforming UK Intelligence Oversight a Decade after 9/11

Abstract The UK government has accepted the case for strengthening the oversight of the security and intelligence agencies in its 2011 Green Paper on Justice and Security and in the draft Justice and Security Bill 2012. While welcome these proposals are, however, seriously deficient in neglecting the potential contribution of oversight to the protection of human rights. This article argues that democratic oversight should play a significant role in strengthening the protection of human rights by way of audit of policies and review of operations of the agencies, with regard to international intelligence cooperation and where the storage and use of personal data by the services is concerned.

National Security, Religious Liberty and Counterterrorism

On 7 July 2005 (7/7), fifty-two people were killed and around seven hundred injured by four bombs in central London, three of them on London underground trains and a fourth upon a bus. Investigations quickly established that the attacks were not the work of overseas terrorists targeted by the United Kingdom’s post-9/11 legislation, but rather of British suicide bombers (Intelligence and Security Committee, 2006; Her Majesty’s Government, 2006). On 21 July 2005 a further series of four small explosions on the transport system took place. This time, however, only the detonators exploded. Nevertheless, the attempts resulted in the largest investigation ever conducted by the Metropolitan Police, with four suspects under arrest within eight days. In January 2007, the trial began at Woolwich Crown Court of six defendants on charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions arising from the 21 July explosions. Four of the men were found guilty and given life sentences, with minimum terms of forty years (Milmo, 2007).

Secrets of the Political Constitution

Book reviewed in this article: Adam Tomkins, The Constitution after Scott: Government Unwrapped