DNA database - victory for our rights, or foolish lefty hand-wringing?

Looks like the government have dropped plans to retain the DNA data
of innocent people on their database for between 6 and 12 years.

This follows a European Court of Human Rights ruling that keeping such data indefinitely was unlawful in the case of S and Marper v UK (2008).

Current developments are an interesting insight into the passage of a bill through parliament (which we will look at next year as part of Sources of Law) as the government is having to make concessions to its opponents in order to get the majority of the Policing and Crime Bill past Parliament.

Do you think that such data should be kept on people or not, and why? Are we striking the right balance between police powers and civil liberties?

Comments please...

What exactly does the Privy Council do?

Interesting article on this strange body here. Crying out for reform?

Law reform body Justice say that “the lack of accessibility and transparency of the Privy Council means that almost no one understands its processes”.

The Privy Council for AS Law Students has two functions - as a Court, (the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council) and as a body that meets to issue Orders in Council. Orders in Council often concern matters of national security, or the implementation of European Directives.

The judges who sit in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are the same people that make up the Law Lords. As it is outside the hierarchy of the Courts, Privy Council decisions are persuasive only but the case of R v James and Karimi (2006) shows us that the Court of Appeal will sometimes follow a Privy Council decision over one of the House of Lords - in this case, the Privy Council's decision in Jersey v Holley (2005) was preferred to the House of Lords' decision in R v Smith (Morgan James) (2001)


The picture above (by artist Ptolemy Dean) shows the chamber where meetings of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council take place - although they will move to the new Supreme Court building next year.

Law Maker

Play this game - can you steer a piece of legislation through Parliament?

There are three different scenarios for you to have a go at - do you have what it takes to be a legislator?

New laws to combat web piracy

The Government today announced proposals for new laws to combat web piracy. Lord Carter, the government's Communciations Minister, has announced that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) will be forced to crack down on web piracy by reporting pirates and informing pirates that what they are doing is illegal. However the proposals stop short of forcing ISPs to cut pirates off altogether.

Some people think this doesn't go far enough....

Live feed from Parliament

Click to watch.