Lock, Daniella;
(2023)
The Protection of ECHR Rights in UK National Security Law.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis assesses the nature and effectiveness of European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) protections in UK national security law (UKNSL) and their implications for the broader debate on law’s role in the national security context. It assesses the manner in which UKNSL protects ECHR rights by way of an in-depth doctrinal assessment of case law concerning the protection of ECHR rights in four core UKNSL contexts. These are: article 3 rights in national security-related deportation; article 6 rights in judicial proceedings reviewing the imposition of ‘Terrorism and Investigation Measures’ (TPIMs); article 8 rights in UK surveillance; and article 15 derogation by the UK for reasons of counter-terrorism. The key argument of the thesis is that despite extensive domestic institutional reform to enable substantive review of UK national security powers, including in appropriate contexts fact-finding and assessment of primary facts and evidence by judicial bodies, the manner that UK judges have applied their jurisdiction tends to dissolve into rationality review. As a result, UKNSL is currently failing to protect fully ECHR rights, and the relevant UKNSL regimes have become ‘legal grey holes’ (LGHs) which are helping to normalise expanding executive national security power. However, as will be argued, the creation of LGHs in this way is not necessarily an inevitability of relying on law to constrain the executive in the national security context, as some political constitutionalists may argue. Rather, the LGHs examined in this thesis can be linked to a number of factors emanating from UKNSL. The thesis argues that these factors are most likely not inherent features of law but contingent. The analysis identifies several changes that could be made, to the statutory regime and judicial practice, to eliminate them.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The Protection of ECHR Rights in UK National Security Law |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| Keywords: | Human rights, Public law, National security, UK national security law, Counter-terrorism, ECHR |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Laws |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10168360 |
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