The Bonfire of the Liberties

New Labour, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law

Keith Ewing

The first full-length, expert critique of New Labour's record on human rights, exposing the failings of our political and legal systems to protect people from the Government's intrusion on their civil liberties
Presents compelling narratives of the major human rights battles over the last decade - including the Control Order cases, the Belmarsh trial, the Jean Charles de Menezes affair and the G20 protests
Offers a provocative critique of the Human Rights Act and the record of the UK judiciary in upholding human rights

The Bonfire of the Liberties

New Labour, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law

Keith Ewing

Description

The Bonfire of the Liberties is a provocative book which confronts the corrosion of civil liberties under successive New Labour governments since 1997. It argues that the last decade has seen a wholesale failure of constitutional principle and exposed the futility of depending on legal rights to restrict the power of executive government. It considers the steps necessary to prevent the continued decline of political standards, arguing that only through rebalancing political power can civil liberties be adequately protected

Relying on extensive new research of inaccessible sources, the book examines the major battlegrounds over civil liberties under New Labour, including the growth and abuse of police power, state surveillance and counter-terrorist measures. It unfolds a compelling narrative of the major battles fought before Parliament and in the courts, and attacks the failure of the political and legal systems to offer protection to those suffering abuses of their civil liberty at the hands of an aggressive Executive. In doing so, it offers a definitive account of the struggle for civil liberty in modern Britain, and a controversial argument for the reforms necessary to contain executive power.

The Bonfire of the Liberties

New Labour, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law

Keith Ewing

Introduction
1. The Growth of Police Powers
2. Surveillance and the Right to Privacy
3. Freedom of Assembly and the Right of Public Protest
4. Free Speech and the National Security State
5. A Permanent Emergency and the Eclipse of Human Rights
6. From Detention - to Control Orders - to Rendition
7. Conclusion - Political Power not Legal Rights

The Bonfire of the Liberties

New Labour, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law

Keith Ewing

Author Information

Keith Ewing is Professor of Public Law at King's College London, and is one of the country's leading civil liberties lawyers. He is the author of Freedom under Thatcher: Civil Liberties in Modern Britain (with Conor Gearty) and his other books include The Right to Strike and The Struggle for Civil Liberties (also with Conor Gearty).

The Bonfire of the Liberties

New Labour, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law

Keith Ewing

Reviews and Awards

"A thought-provoking addition to current debates regarding the best form of protection of human rights in the United Kingdom, and will no doubt add fuel to the fire of those already calling for a reassertion of the supremacy of Parliamentary sovereignty in the face of perceived attacks from "unelected judges" under the Human Rights Act 1998" --Jane Gordon, Public Law

"The book more than makes the case for the need for a new approach to civil liberties" --Janel McLean, The Edinburgh Law Review

"Keith Ewing has written an excellent and damning indictment of New Labour's record on human rights and the rule of law, marshalling his evidence with ease and great narrative power. It is a real tour de force." --James A. Grant, University of Oxford, The Modern Law Review