ARTICLE 3, PROTOCOL 1:
The High Contracting Parties undertake to hold free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot, under conditions which will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature.

What a cop-out that decision was. Hirst laid a clear principle: a blanket ban on prisoners voting ( Read more... )

Alex Massie, a freelance Scottish journalist, also believes Abu Qatada has a right to a fair trial in Jordan and should not be deported due to the risk of evidence obtained through torture. Moreover, if he really is as bad as everybody says he is, let him stand trial in the UK itself. Anything else would either make "the British government an ( Read more... )

The rule of law in Britain is diminished by the furore over efforts to deport Abu Qatada to Jordan by Peter Oborne [The Daily Telegraph]
European judges telling Britain what to do (The oddity of Britain's human rights debate) by Bagehot's Notebook Blog [The Economist ( Read more... )

The Canadian man behind the Scottish independence movement by Nancy Macdonald [Macleans.ca]
Never mind Mitt Romney, don't bet on any party to care about the poor by Gary Younge [The Guardian Cif America]

A death sentence for the death penalty? by Joanna Walters [The Guardian]
The US government's capital punishment prerogative by David A Love [The ( Read more... )

In Ireland, a man can be sentenced to life for incest but a woman can only be sentenced to a maximum of seven years. As if that isn't a fair deal for people who commit the same crime, there comes a story of a mother who forced her teenage son to have sex with her on four occasions over a six-year period, while abusing and starving her five other ( Read more... )

Judge decides there was 'real love' between the pair

"A 34-year-old Italian man who had sex with a 13-year-old girl has had his sentence cut by two-thirds to only one year and four months in jail out of a possible 12-year term. Because of a general amnesty for anyone who receives a sentence of less than three years, de Pascale is unlikely to serve ( Read more... )

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