Amid the controversy of the Health and Welfare Bills the coalition’s proposals to alter the House of Lords have almost passed unnoticed. Yet for AS students this is an important topic as it will be part of both the Constitution and Parliament part of the course. Here’s a good BBC piece on Nick Clegg’s defence of the proposals and a wider look, also from the BBC, at all the coalition’s proposed constitutional reforms.
Filed under: Parliament
The Parliament Channel on Youtube has a number of excellent videos, they are short and deal with specific topics. Here’s a nice intro one on how bills become law.
Filed under: Judiciary / Civil Liberties
There’s an excellent piece in yesterday’s Independent by Christina Patterson on why the state has a duty to defend the Human Rights of Abu Qatada, the Jordanian Al Qaeda cleric who is scheduled to be released from six and a half years detention this week.
Filed under: Judiciary / Civil Liberties
Last year Channel 4 produced an excellent documentary on the first year of the UK Supreme Court which covered the judges and the cases that were most significant. It’s an excellent place to start your study of the Judiciary and Civil Rights.
Filed under: Judiciary / Civil Liberties
Today sees the final stand of Julian Assange, the leader of the Wikileaks movement, who has been held under house arrest for the past year as he has fought moves to extradite him to Sweden to face charges of rape. The Supreme Court will rule on whether the European Arrest Warrant issued is Sweden is valid. The case hinges on the fact that when the UK issues an arrest warrant it is done by a judge, whereas the warrant for Assange was issued by a prosecutor who Assange’s lawyers argue is clearly biased. The case will allow the Supreme Court to set establish a precedent that the British legal system gives the benefit of the doubt to other European legal systems.
