The right to a fair trial is one of the key points established within the human rights act 1998.

The right to a fair trial is one of the key points established within the human rights act 1998. ECHR Article 6 (1) & (3)(c), in summary, states that everyone charged with a criminal offence is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law and has the right: 'to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing or, if he has not sufficient means to pay for legal assistance, to be given it free when the interests of justice so require'. Article 6 is one of the most significant convention articles and the one that is most frequently found to be violated.1 The far-reaching powers contained in new legislation have led the Government to derogate from Article 5 of the ECHR just over a year after the HRA came into force2. This decision flies in the face of the Government's commitment to human rights and has proved difficult to justify, as I will show in this assignment. Since the beginning of the 21st century the British Government has introduced two new pieces of legislation to deal with the now worldwide threat of terrorism. The Terrorism Act 2000 is the primary piece of UK counter-terrorist legislation and it has introduced new measures in the fight against terrorism. Passed by Parliament on 20 July 2000, it came into force on 19 February 2001 in response to the changing threat

  • Word count: 3995
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Law
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How democratic was the British parliamentary system by 1914.

How Democratic was the British Parliamentary System by 1914 There is no doubt that by 1914 Britain was a democratic country. Compared to the 19th century where the country was governed by the so-called 'natural leaders' and the monarch, it had gone far to reach the level of democracy. The main reason that 'triggered' of the rest of the changes was the constant legislation and reform acts being passed. This was vital because not only did it improve social conditions but also increased the franchise. This meant more and more people getting the vote which gradually decreased the power of both the Monarchy and House of Lords, who had taken it as their duty to rule the country. As mentioned above the main reason for Britain becoming a democratic state was the constant legislation being passed. In essence democracy means for the people by the people. However it had progressed greatly form the early 19th century. The first great reform that took place was the Great Reform Act of 1832. This was the first great reform and many politicians after this predicted that more reform was inevitable. Peel said, 'I was unwilling to open the door which I saw no prospect of being able to close,' and how right he was. Although with hindsight it can be seen that it wasn't as great as it seemed, the major thing was that it was one of the first steps of both the Monarchy and House of Lords losing

  • Word count: 2459
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Law
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Trident Booklet - Work Experience.

In this booklet you will find how to select your chosen Trident placement, what to do in the interview and how to make the appointment. Also you will find out about the preparation in pastoral lessons and general advice on how to prepare. The Selection Process: When it is time to select your Trident placement you have the choice to select six placements out of the Trident Book or opt for a private placement. I did neither as I knew someone that was willing to take me on. If you decide to select six placements you have to do is choose six jobs that you are willing to do because you may not get your first choice then complete form putting your favourite choice first and your least favourite last on your placement sheet. I would advise you to only write down six placements that you actually enjoy otherwise you may be very miserable for two weeks. If you choose to take a private placement then you have to find a company that you would like to go for Trident and ask them if they would be willing to take you on. If they decide to take you on you must find out if they have insurance to cover you otherwise you will not be able to undertake trident at that company. Finally if maybe you would like a Trident placement with somebody you know they must also have insurance otherwise you cannot participate. If they are already in the Trident book and they have agreed to accept you, then

  • Word count: 2161
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Law
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How are human rights protected in the UK system? What is the basic relationship between the UK courts and Strasbourg?

How are human rights protected in the UK system? What is the basic relationship between the UK courts and Strasbourg? When considering how human rights are protected in the UK, it is important to consider how traditional approaches to human rights protection have proved ineffective. The Diceyan approach stated that common law protected human rights, allowing people to be as 'free' as they like, as long as the law allowed them to be (i.e. Entick v Carrington [1765). This reliance on common law proved to be ineffective in protecting human rights for a number of reasons. If the common law allows citizens to be 'free' to anything not prohibited by law, the same applies to the Government, which may violate individual freedom in this manner (i.e. Malone v Metropolitan Police Commissioner). Additionally, while Parliament in previous centuries could provide a 'watchdog' on executive power, this is no longer the case in the 20th/21st century where the party system has lead to majority based governments that can enact statutory legislation with minimal restrictions. As such, Governments are more capable than ever in their ability to erode human rights through legislation. To counter these growing powers, the UK's adoption of the European Convention on Human Rights (ratified in UK in 1951) and the Human Rights Act [1998] have been fundamental in protecting human rights. The ECHR,

  • Word count: 1060
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Law
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Crime Definitions and the extent of crime

Crime Definitions and the extent of crime The definition of crime stands to be" an action or an instance of negligence that is deemed injurious to the public welfare or morals or to the interests of the state and that is legally prohibited." (Dictionary.com) When looking at the British crime survey (BCS) and then looking at police records it showed up that there should be about 50% more recorded crime from the British crime survey that just the police recorded alone. If you looked at the stats that the British crime survey produced just for England and Wales it calculates that in 2006/2007, there were 726,000 burglaries. On the other hand the police statistics for 2006/2007 are 300,500 burglaries. This proves that the BCS has about 50% more recorded crimes throughout England and Wales. There are different reasons for why the crime statistics from the police and the BCS are different. To have a crime booked and recorded the must be victims, Witnesses, injuries, certain laws to be broken or the criminal to be caught. If you take into account that there are 60 million people living in England and Wales, on average there is £50-£60 million spent on crime. This show that on average every tax payer pays abut £1000 per year just due to crime. There is 5.5 million recorded offences by the police while the BCS reckon that there are 10.9 million offences committed each year.

  • Word count: 945
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Law
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Twelve Angry Men.

Twelve Angry Men The legal system in the United States of America grants one the right to a bench trial, where a judge determines the verdict, or a jury trial where, in most cases, where a panel of twelve United States citizens are sworn in to hear a case and then deliberate, after receiving instruction by the judge, to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant. In the movie, Twelve Angry Men, the selected group of jurors was to decide the verdict of a murder case where a young man was accused of killing his father. Although we did not get to see the trial, we did get to see the jury receive instructions from the judge in regards to the law and how there needed to be a unanimous verdict to convict the accused. After the jurors received their instructions from the judge, the jury was sent off to deliberate. This was when the true colors of the jury deliberation process were revealed. When the twelve jurors entered the room to deliberate, eleven out of the twelve began with a verdict of guilty without even discussing any of the evidence. This raises an important question; the jury was instructed to deliberate, so how can they reach a verdict without recapping the trial? If it were not for the one juror, Henry Fonda, who openly admitted that he did not know if the young man was guilty or innocent, the jury would have found a guilty verdict strictly based on

  • Word count: 1590
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Law
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Decriminalize Prostitution

Decriminalize Prostitution Introduction Every now and then, and almost in every part of the world, we hear of looked- down and probably the most discriminated men and women in the society-we call them prostitutes. I say looked-down and discriminated since it is undeniable that society frowns at this group of people, for looking at it in the moral perspective, prostitution may be morally wrong. Yet, the society looks at them like criminals, worse than just morally flawed people. It would be better if we probe into the issue starting on how it is defined and how it works. Eventually, let's try to weigh down things and see that prostitution really is not a punishable act as that of a crime, and that there are no legal justifications to consider it as one. Prostitution: Its Definition and How it Works Legally speaking, prostitution is a term that "generally means the commission by a person of any natural or unnatural sexual act, deviate sexual intercourse, or sexual contact for monetary considerations or other thing of value" (Prostitution Law and Legal Definition, 2005). Prostitutes may either be male or female, young or old who engages in any sexual or sexually related activity in exchange for money most commonly, or of other valuable things. In most places however, prostitutes are commonly female, of male customers or clients (Legal Definition, 2005). Prostitution

  • Word count: 2670
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Law
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How does Peter Medak gain the viewer's sympathy for Derek Bentley in the film 'Let him have it!' ?

Media Coursework Essay Question: How does Peter Medak gain the viewer's sympathy for Derek Bentley in the film 'Let him have it!' ? Peter Medak (Medak) chose to make this film because it had an interesting story line. Medak might have wanted to prove that the justice system makes mistake and sometimes those mistakes cannot be fixed, like the mistake or the Derek Bentley (Bentley) and Christopher Craig (Craig) case, where someone was hanged for a miss interpretation of evidence. Film directors like Medak use bias as their strong point; it keeps the viewers attention on the movie and begins to get the viewers to imagine what they would do in the situation. The film is set in the 1950's Britain. Bentley and Craig, two teenagers, are on the roof of a factory in south London. Seen by a local people, police are called. During the raid Bentley is caught and placed under custody while Craig attempts to fight the police. When Craig is approached by the police and asked to hand the gun over, Bentley purportedly yelled 'let him have it'. The controversy lies that Craig misunderstood Bentley and thought he meant that he should pull the trigger. Craig the one who fired the gun was given ten years, as he was only sixteen and underage. Bentley on the other hand was given the death sentence. Evidence was given to show Bentley was retarded and had the mental age of eleven, although was not

  • Word count: 1347
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Law
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In general, the criminal law prohibits the doing of harm, but it does not impose a liability for failure to do good. Assess the truth of statement by reference to the situations persons may incur.

In general, the criminal law prohibits the doing of harm, but it does not impose a liability for failure to do good. Assess the truth of statement by reference to the situations persons may incur. For a person to commit a crime, he must have committed some kind of act. There are three ways in which a person can be tested on whether he has committed the crime. The first is that there must be a crime in the first place i.e. murder. The second is that he must have meant to cause it e.g. the result would not have happened if he had not caused it. The third is that he must have a duty of care. In English criminal law, a person is prohibited from causing any kind of harm to another individual. The criminal system does not impose any liability for not doing anything i.e. if a person is drowning in a pool you are not ordered by law to save that person. The only reason you would have to do this is if u were contracted to have that duty. Although in some statues like the Road traffic act (1988) make it an offence to fail to do something. Contractual duty, in R v Pitwood (1902), a signalman was convicted of manslaughter. He was employed by the railway company to look after a level crossing and to make sure that the gate was securely shut when there was a train due. He had left his post and this resulted in a person wondering onto the lines and being killed by an oncoming train. A

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  • Word count: 728
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Law
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Human Rights

"Despite International agreements, abuses of human rights still occur" Identify ONE Human Rights issue and assess the effectiveness of both international and domestic legal measures is addressing this human rights issue. Under the United Nation Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child 2002, the human rights issue of child prostitution is defined as the use of a child in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of consideration. Child prostitution has been addressed internationally via the use of treaties and protocols, however despite this, these legal remedies are poorly enforced, and it remains an intense, recurring issue on an international scale. On the contrary, on a domestic level in Australia, legal measures that address child prostitution are effective in a limited sense, due to the fear of legal sanctions and ethical considerations of the issue, which ultimately decreases the rate of crime in this area. Despite this compliance, the issue still occurs regardless of the various legal enactments. Sexual exploitation of children for commercial purposes, such as child prostitution and child sex tourism, is an escalating violation of human rights. However, international legal sanctions against this crime are extremely ineffective because they are disgracefully enforced. In the international community, child prostitution is a growing

  • Word count: 2344
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Law
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