Decision House Lords the Decision by the Essay

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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 nation was believed to be at risk. Belmarsh is the prison where most of these individuals were held without trial.

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At the time, many British protestors believed that Belmarsh was the UKs version of Guantanamo Bay and the terror suspects imprisoned there were being treated unjustly and unfairly. The ruling in the decision was seen as being in line with the Human Rights Act of 1998.

From the government's perspective, the Human Rights Act was seen as something that hinders their ability to protect people from terrorism. As former Home Secretary Dr. John Reid stated, "There is a very serious [terrorism] threat, and I am the first to admit that the means we have of fighting it are so inadequate that we are fighting with one arm tied behind our backs." He further adds that politics in cases such as the Belmarsh detainees' situation stem from: the support of partisan issues at the expense of national security (Travis, 2007).

Despite these opinions of the situation (from government officials such as: Reid), the judges voted 8 to 1 that imprisoning the detainees was unlawful. Lord Bingham and others stated that although….....

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