Decision House Lords
The Decision by the House of Lords in the Belmarsh Detainees Case
The decision by the House of Lords in the Belmarsh detainees case (A v Secretary of State Home Office [2004] UKHL 56) illustrates the increased intensity of judicial review under the Human Rights Act. Discuss the judicial reasoning in this case in the light of the above statement.
The ruling of the Belmarsh detainees' case was seen as a major victory for the human rights movement. As, it involved twelve foreign terrorist suspects who were held in prison without trial. The decision was that these individuals who were held unlawfully and should be released from prison (Tomkins, 2005). A short time after this, the government changed their policy of holding foreign suspects without trial in prison to: placing them under house arrest. This is important, because it is showing the overall shifts that have occurred in how the government is dealing with this issue.
As a result, their policy regarding terrorist suspects changed after the events of September 11, 2001. In response, the government was given more authority in cases where the security of the...
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