Habemus corpus?
The right of habeas corpus is a key right because, in the same way as petitions to Parliament, they make all other rights effective because, although they only demand a case be seen, they drag it into the sunlight.
Regrettably, the government seeks to extend the current maximum time that someone can be held without charge – already an excessive twenty-eight days – to forty-eight days. It is internment by any other name and its greatest effect will be to act as a recruiting sergeant for extremism and terrorism. There are other measures – post-charge questioning, intercept evidence – that have not been fully considered which come before such a drastic step. While I might be prepared to trust the current administration, this law (as laws are rarely repealed) and its effects would echo down the years.
I urge everyone to sign the petition at the Number Ten website, set up by Amnesty (via Liberal Conspiracy).
As an aside, while Britain may further restrict the right of habeas corpus, a more modern right, habeas data, allowing for access to information held on oneself by the Government, seems to me to be warranted in the UK.
xD.
December 8th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Habeas data – I can see them smiling in Whitehall.