Kingsley Praises Judges as they Speak Out on Curbs of Power
April 26, 2005 10:57 PM
Jenny on a walkabout in Earl's Court this week
The Lib Dem Candidate for Kensington & Chelsea, Jenny Kingsley, has been drawing attention to the five senior judges who have revealed their fears that recent laws passed by the Government could limit their role.
The four appeal court judges and one high court judge said they had concerns about laws on sentencing, control orders for terror suspects and public inquiries.
In a series of interviews with The Guardian of 26th April, on condition of anonymity, they singled out the Government's planned "ouster clause" barring the courts from ruling on the legality of asylum and immigration decisions as an "outrage".
Their views on the clause were supported by other senior legal figures, including Lord Donaldson, the former master of the rolls.
Lord Donaldson said a threat by the former Labour lord chancellor Lord Irvine to speak against the proposal led to its abandonment last March:
"Derry Irvine put his foot down implicitly and they abandoned that. Had they successfully pursued the ouster clause then we certainly should have been in a very interesting constitutional crisis."
Jenny Kingsley commented:
"Extraordinary threats - like those posed by international terrorism - may require us, in times of emergency and for limited periods, to find a different balance between liberty and security. But as Charles Kennedy says, the correct response to such threats should not be the complete abandonment of our hard-won civil liberties! It's an alarming trend and I am very pleased that these judges have spoken out on this issue."
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