UK News 17-12-2004 Law Lords Condemn Anti-Terror Powers who: Home secretary Charles Clarke what: Says he will call for anti-terror laws to be renewed in the new year despite Law Lords` condemnation where: LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: The government will have to rethink key elements of its draconian anti-terror strategy, says The Financial Times, after a specially-convened panel of nine Law Lords, Britain`s most senior judges, ruled by a majority of eight to one that holding suspects indefinitely at Belmarsh and Woodhill high security prisons was unlawful under the European convention on human rights (ECHR). "In an overwhelming condemnation of the law introduced after the September 11 attacks in the US, the House of Lords ruled that the human rights of foreign suspects held for up to three years without charge or trial had been breached," says The Times. "The decision paves the way for a huge constitutional clash between the judiciary and Parliament." Philip Johnston, home affairs editor at The Telegraph, says the Law Lords` conclusion was "a statement of the obvious" but nonetheless misses the point. "To make the legislation compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, Britain unilaterally withdrew from Article 5, the right to liberty and security," he explains. "It did so on the grounds that Britain faced `a public emergency threatening the life of the nation`." Britain`s new home secretary, Charles Clarke, who took over from the outgoing David Blunkett on Wednesday, made it plain that the government would "tough it out" and ask parliament to renew the law in the new year, says The Guardian. However, The Independent`s home affairs correspondent, Nigel Morris, says Mr Clarke`s career has "steer[ed] a more liberal course than Mr Blunkett" and notes that Neil Kinnock has described him as "enlightened" and instinctively liberal. "His strongest motive force is justice," says the former Labour leader. [... more]

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