A JUSTICE Working Party tonight (17th May 2016) recommended a fresh, principled and research-driven approach to the configuration of the court and tribunal estate in England and Wales. Its report calls for a radical rethinking of what our court buildings should look like in order to respond to the demands of modern-day justice, with an emphasis […]
Are Human Rights Really Universal? Asks Helena Kennedy QC, Chair of JUSTICE Council on BBC Radio 4 tonight
April 18, 2016
You can now listen to the first instalment on the BBC Radio 4 website. Listen now. Tonight (Monday 18 April) at 8pm on BBC Radio 4, in the first instalment of a two-part series, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws QC, Chair of JUSTICE Council, will be exploring the question ‘Are Human Rights Really Universal?’ In […]
Complex and lengthy criminal trials – a JUSTICE working party report offers solutions
March 4, 2016
Over the course of 2015 a JUSTICE working party of members and invited experts chaired by Sir David Calvert-Smith was tasked with reviewing the current processes that lead to complex and lengthy criminal trials. This was in order to present a series of recommendations designed to deliver increased efficiency and effectiveness within the criminal justice […]
JUSTICE: Rushing the new Investigatory Powers Bill does nothing for public trust
March 2, 2016
On 1 March, the Government published the latest iteration of its Investigatory Powers Bill. The Bill will have its Second Reading in the House of Commons in the next two weeks. Since 2011, JUSTICE has called for a coherent, holistic rewrite of surveillance law to increase accountability and transparency, to provide clear powers necessary for […]
Time to think again – Draft Investigatory Powers Bill
February 12, 2016
JUSTICE welcomes the overwhelming Parliamentary consensus that the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill must be substantially redrafted to remove or revise overbroad, imprecise or vague powers and to strengthen crucial protections for individual privacy. Since 2011, JUSTICE has called for a coherent, holistic rewrite of surveillance law to increase accountability and transparency, to provide clear powers […]
Immigration Bill briefing for House of Lords Committee Stage
January 14, 2016
JUSTICE has produced a new briefing to inform the consideration of the Immigration Bill 2015-16 in the House of Lords Committee Stage, which is due to begin on Monday 18 January. JUSTICE’s previous briefings on this Bill have been quoted extensively during debates in both the House of Commons and the Lords, not least by Andy […]
Draft Investigatory Powers Bill
December 18, 2015
The Draft Investigatory Powers Bill was published on 4 November 2015 for consultation. A Joint Committee appointed to report on the Draft Bill published its report on 11 February 2016. In 2011, JUSTICE recommended that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (‘RIPA’) be repealed and replaced by a modern legal framework for surveillance more […]
JUSTICE & others call on Prime Minister to rethink Ministerial commitment to the rule of law
November 27, 2015
JUSTICE today (26 November 2015) joined a group of leading UK law reform and human rights organisations in urging the Prime Minister to reverse changes to the Ministerial Code which remove an unambiguous obligation for Ministers to respect international law in all that they do. On 15 October 2015, amendments were made to the Code, […]
The Draft Investigatory Powers Bill: Building a Surveillance Framework for a Digital Age?
November 6, 2015
Earlier this week, in anticipation of the publication of the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, JUSTICE published Freedom from suspicion: Building a surveillance framework for a digital age. Since our 2011 call for wholesale reform, in Freedom from suspicion: Surveillance reform for a digital age; in the intervening four years, change has become not only timely, […]
Building a surveillance law fit for purpose – new JUSTICE publication
November 3, 2015
In 2011, JUSTICE published Freedom from Suspicion: Surveillance Reform for a Digital Age, a forward looking report on the failure of the surveillance framework in the UK to keep pace with changing technology, to the detriment of both individual privacy and the credibility of the work of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies. We recommended […]