Thursday, February 12, 2004
You’d better watch out – the EU is not Santa!
You’d better watch how you walk and talk in Britain from now on. At the beginning of 2004, the UK implemented the European Arrest Warrant, under which you can be summarily extradited to another European country, without any examination of the evidence against you, for conduct that is not even a crime in England. As Boris Johnson, the editor of The Spectator, says: “For the first time, British citizens, in Britain, will be subject to the criminal law of other countries - even if the law here says they have no case to answer. And if we protest against this infamy, we are told it is part of the war on terror; and that, of course, makes it politically hard to oppose.�
The EU Arrest Warrant is the first stage towards implementation of a treaty called Corpus Juris, which aims to bring the legal systems of all European countries into line. As Britain, with its Westminster system, is the odd-man-out, guess who will change the most? So what’s at stake? For starters, the writ of habeas corpus (described as the jewel in the crown of British justice), under which a person cannot be detained without being charged with a crime. Also out would be trial by jury for all but the most major crimes.
A huge scythe is being taken to British justice – I cannot understand why there is not rioting in the streets over it.
You’d better watch how you walk and talk in Britain from now on. At the beginning of 2004, the UK implemented the European Arrest Warrant, under which you can be summarily extradited to another European country, without any examination of the evidence against you, for conduct that is not even a crime in England. As Boris Johnson, the editor of The Spectator, says: “For the first time, British citizens, in Britain, will be subject to the criminal law of other countries - even if the law here says they have no case to answer. And if we protest against this infamy, we are told it is part of the war on terror; and that, of course, makes it politically hard to oppose.�
The EU Arrest Warrant is the first stage towards implementation of a treaty called Corpus Juris, which aims to bring the legal systems of all European countries into line. As Britain, with its Westminster system, is the odd-man-out, guess who will change the most? So what’s at stake? For starters, the writ of habeas corpus (described as the jewel in the crown of British justice), under which a person cannot be detained without being charged with a crime. Also out would be trial by jury for all but the most major crimes.
A huge scythe is being taken to British justice – I cannot understand why there is not rioting in the streets over it.
