Reviews: Human Rights and Criminal Justice
| DOI | 10.1177/136571270200600205 |
| Author | Andrew Roberts |
| Published date | 01 March 2002 |
| Date | 01 March 2002 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Ben Emmerson QC and Andrew Ashworth QC
HUMAN RIGHTS
AND
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
London: Sweet
&
Maxwell
(2001)
lxxviii
+
657pp, hb,
f65
When the Human Rights Act
1998
(UK)
came into force on
2
October
2000
practitioners were presented with an opportunity to raise challenges, on the
grounds of incompatibility with a Convention right, across the breadth of the
criminal justice system. It has not passed unnoticed that, unfortunately, this
opportunity has been embraced with some degree of over-enthusiasm which has
manifested itself in a rash of illconceived and unfounded challenges. Indeed in
Barclays
Bank
plc
v
Ellis
[2001]
C
P
Rep
50.
The
Times,
24
October
2000.
Schiemann
LJ
was moved to state that 'if counsel wished to rely on the provisions of the
1998
Act they had a duty to have available any material in terms of decisions of the
European Court of Human Rights which they relied on
or
which would help the
court. Mere reference to the Convention did not help the court. Argument needed
to be formulated and advanced in a plausible way.'
For
those contemplating this cautionary admonition, Emmerson and Ashworth
offer a substantial and comprehensive text that might prove a valuable addition
to many practitioners' bookshelves. Though described by the publisher as a
'practitioner work' the detailed analysis of issues, drawing on material from non-
ECHR
jurisdictions, lends the book a broader appeal.
The text is divided into
two
parts. The first part has three sections explaining: the
origins of the European Convention on Human Rights and the procedure of the
Strasbourg Court; the interpretative techniques employed by the Court: and the
provisions
of
the Human Rights Act
1998.
The second part, comprising the
substantially greater proportion of the book, examines: the definition of a criminal
charge: rights relating to arrest and detention in police custody; entry, search
and seizure: intrusive surveillance; the substantive criminal law: the burden and
standard of proof; retrospectivity and the principle of legal certainty: issues of
criminal responsibility; double jeopardy; bail; aspects of criminal procedure;
criminal evidence; appeals; and the rights of victims of crime.
134
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
OF
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&
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