Obviously all the parties’ manifestos will contain long lists of items many of which could end up as legislation. I want to focus though on some of the “pledges” that are of particular legal interest or significance. Starting with Labour’s […]

I was interested in a debate yesterday kicked off by Jessica Asato, writing at Left Foot Forward about the way Conservative opposition led to the government’s dropping provisions in the Children, Schools and Families Bill about personal, social […]

I wrote at Comment is Free yesterday, defending the government’s proposals on retention of DNA profiles in the Crime and Security Bill, and generally arguing against the idea that profile retention is a major invasion of human rights:

… much […]

I may have been less visible than usual here recently, but that’s not been simple idleness – and I have been writing elsewhere, including this piece the other week on Index on Censorship about Jon Venables. I was a […]

I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to comment on the Court of Appeal’s judgment in R(Mohamed) v Foreign Secretary. People usually claim to hate saying they told you so. I love saying it if I’m honest, but only […]

On Wednesday I wrote about the Nadia Eweida case at Comment is Free.

My line’s a compromise one, I think: my starting point is a secularist one, but I’m not insisting on the workspace being absolutely non-religious. I doubt that’s […]

While the British government bans Islamist groups, it looks very much as though some kind of ban is going to be imposed in France on being completely veiled – wearing the niqab, chador and burka – in public. A

In case you’re interested, here’s the order, made under section 3(6) of the Terrorism Act 2000, by means of which Alan Johnson has banned “Islam4UK” under several alternative names. The Order was made on Monday, which suggests it was […]

In my last post, I linked to a UN report about the adverse effects of the movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes. The Special Rapporteur visited Ivory Coast as part of his efforts to examine the […]

Michael White, writing on the Guardian’s website, argues that John Demjanjuk, currently on trial in Munich, should not be. Demjanjuk is accused of involvement in the murder of thousands at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during […]