Orders for removal under Section 47 of the 1948 National Assistance Act are little discussed. However, they involve severe infringements of the civil liberties of those affected. It is argued that all previously presented justifications for the use of these orders fail. Repeal of the act is called for. The Law Commission has drafted alternative legislation, but this has not been enacted. Until ...

publishes Country Reports on Terrorism, which highlights current strategies, outcomes and casualties from U.S. counterterrorism efforts. The 2008 report highlights the growing trend in terrorist attacks abroad, including the September attack against the U.S. Embassy in Yemen that killed 18 people. The continued incidence of terrorism prompts us to consider its root causes. It is popular to sing...

In this paper, we take a queer linguistics approach to the analysis of data from British newspaper articles that discuss the introduction of same-sex marriage. Drawing on methods from CDA and corpus linguistics, we focus on the construction of agency in relation to the government extending marriage to same-sex couples, and those resisting this. We show that opponents to same-sex marriage are re...

Traditionally, social concerns such as freedom and privacy have been addressed by complex systems of laws, norms, and cultural beliefs. While the growing use of computers and other technologies has raised serious questions about the future of these civil liberties, so far policymakers have primarily sought answers in terms of legal remedies rather than the technologies themselves. This is due, ...

A policy of "preventive detention" has recently been debated in the British Parliament. Alarmed by the high-profile criminal activities of people suspected of having dangerous severe personality disorder (DSPD), the government have made clear their intention to "indeterminately but reviewably detain" people with DSPD, after diagnosis by forensic psychiatrists, even if the individuals are yet to...

Studies that examine whether voters make informed decisions on direct legislation and whether direct legislation enhances civic engagement presume a basic awareness of ballot propositions, yet little is known about why some ballot propositions are more widely known than others. Despite the fact that research on awareness of ballot propositions and political awareness focus on individual factors...

The coronavirus outbreak of 2019 (COVID-19) has arisen as a major challenge to global public health, necessitating immediate “action and resulting in unprecedented” transformation brief period time. This illness wreaked havoc on economies around the globe, infringed civil liberties, healthcare system India.

Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, is an item-tagging technology which interests suppliers and retailers. RFID has potential to revolutionise supply chain management but also some potentially distressing social implications. When used inappropriately, RFID is capable of reducing or eliminating customer anonymity, thereby damaging privacy and threatening civil liberties. I begin with an intro...

Why do developing countries prove so resistant to the rule of law? The problem is all the more paradoxical because the institutional technologies for providing the rule of law – systems of property rights, civil rights, and personal liberties, general incorporation laws, corporate governance structures, contract law, and judicial systems – is relatively well-known. To address these questions, I...