Strasbourg in the Dock
Author: Dominic Raab
Publisher: Civitas Book Publisher
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781906837211
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe ruling that convicted prisoners have the right to vote has put the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg at loggerheads with the UK Parliament. This was reinforced in 2011 when backbenchers of all parties rejected enfranchising prisoners in a free vote. In this forensic examination, Dominic Raab, MP for Esher and Walton, explains how the infamous Hirst ruling undermines the express terms of the Convention agreed in 1950. Contracting states agreed that holding free elections was a human right, but reserved for nation states the right to decide who was eligible to vote. Raab argues that the Strasbourg Court is acting beyond its legitimate powers of interpretation, and proposed that the UK Supreme Court be enabled to overrule Strasbourg.