Yesterday I went to Dublin to contribute to the work of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which is considering the implications of the recommendations of the Citizens Assembly. My written evidence is available here, and the videos of the session can be accessed on the Oireachtas TV stream.
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Opportunity for 18-month, full time post-doc position
Together with Jessie Blackbourn of the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, I recently was awarded a grant to pursue an 18-month project on counter-terrorism review in the UK. The project will identify existing knowledge gaps in UK counter-terrorism review, explore the implications and impacts for rights of how counter-terrorism review currently works, and propose reforms based on the findings of this cross-disciplinary research. The project will produce both academic outputs and a stakeholder-oriented report that will outline, justify and contextualise the major policy reform proposals resulting from the research.
We are now hiring a research fellow to be part of the research team. The post-holder will be based in Birmingham, although some national travel will be required. The research fellow will have an excellent grounding in law, counter-terrorism, security, public administration or cognate fields, and a demonstrated ability to work independently to the very highest levels of research excellence. The research fellow will work with the project leaders to develop appropriate methodologies, relationships with stakeholders, and publications from the project that will make both intellectual and practical contributions to the field.
The full details are here and the closing date is 7 July 2017.
Tearing up human rights law won’t protect us from terrorism
Prime minister Theresa May has announced her resolve to tear up human rights law if it prevents her, and her government, from tackling extremism and countering terrorism.
This rhetoric is hardly new. It echoes Tony Blair’s post 9/11 claim that “the rules of the game are changing”. It’s also a continuation of May’s approach as home secretary. Over her term in that role, she systematically sought to dismantle legal barriers to desired government action. Indeed, it chimes well with longstanding concerns on the part of many Conservatives that human rights law is nothing more than an obstacle to security. Continue reading “Tearing up human rights law won’t protect us from terrorism”
The Submissions I would read if I were a member of the Citizens Assembly
The Citizens Assembly has announced the 17 groups that have been invited to address the Assembly members at the March meeting. This follows relatively hot on the heels of its selection of 300 ‘random’ submissions to be brought to members’ attention, as well as the (continuing) uploading of the 13,000+ submissions that were sent to the Assembly either online or by post.
The selection of the sample and of groups to present to the Assembly has attracted some criticism, including from me. It would appear that the Assembly has taken an extremely limited approach to the concept of balance, understanding it as meaning one side ‘balancing out’ another, without regard to points of extremity, the fact that contestation is complex, the possibility of multiple points of disagreement along a scale and so on. In addition, the selection of the random sample of 300 submissions was undertaken without even the barest methodological rigour one would expect of, say, an undergraduate student by, for example, determining first the volume of submissions that were ‘template’ or repeat submissions, the broad proportions of submissions calling for repeal or retention, and then sampling from a ‘proper’ sample (with one of each template, for example) in a manner proportionate to the overall submission rates. Furthermore, in inviting people to address the Assembly it would appear that any lawyers who had ever written specifically on the issue of abortion law reform in Ireland were excluded (although not practising lawyers who had acted in abortion law cases), and the submissions of those lawyers (disclosure: this includes me) were not identified as being in any way potentially more useful or more likely to propose solutions than those of anyone else. This is in spite of the fact that at every meeting members of the Assembly have repeatedly asked for solution-oriented/forward-facing and comparative approaches to be presented to them. Continue reading “The Submissions I would read if I were a member of the Citizens Assembly”
Professor Fiona de Londras 