Clarke presses for reform of the European Court of Human Rights
(Source: Solicitor's Journal - http://www.solicitorsjournal.com/story.asp?sectioncode=2&storycode=17799&c=1)
Justice secretary Ken Clarke has said the UK will use its chairmanship of the Council of Europe, starting this November, to press the case for reform of the European Court of Human Rights.
The prime minister described the year-old ruling by the Supreme Court on the human rights of sex offenders as “appalling” and said a commission would be established to draw up a British bill of rights, as promised in the coalition agreement.
However, Clarke told The Andrew Marr Show yesterday that there was no question of the government pulling out of the ECHR.
Echoing earlier comments made by Jean-Paul Costa, president of the ECtHR, Clarke said that only the Greek generals in the 1970s had repudiated the convention.
The justice secretary said that potential issues for reform included the large number of judges, delays in making judgments and the extent to which the court intruded into matters best dealt with by domestic courts.
Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, told Radio Four’s Today programme this morning that the UK faced a “stark choice” between accepting rulings from Strasbourg or leaving the Council of Europe.
Lord Woolf said it would be “virtually impossible” to amend the European convention, because there were 47 other signatories.
He said it would be difficult for the courts to deal with a situation where there was a British bill of rights and a convention.
However, the former Lord Chief Justice said he did not “see any problem” with the establishment of a commission on a British bill of rights. The commission will be chaired jointly by Clarke and the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, accused the government of carefully selecting its moment to attack the Supreme Court, hard on the heels of an overwhelming vote by the Commons not to lift the ban preventing convicted prisoners from voting.
