Thứ Sáu, 29 tháng 5, 2015

The Referendum Bill: politics and law

 Steve PeersYesterday’s publication of the Referendum Bill fired the starting pistol in the process of renegotiating the UK’s membership of the EU, and holding an ‘in-out’ referendum on the results. I’ll look at two different elements of the Bill: the parliamentary process and its main contents. It inevitably leaves some issues out, since a Referendum Bill is only meant to deal with the basic referendum process, not with the substantive questions...

Thứ Năm, 28 tháng 5, 2015

The new EU Migration Agenda takes shape: analysis of the first new measures

Steve PeersThis week the European Commission took its first steps towards implementing its new EU Migration Agenda(previously discussed here). A number of the items in the agenda have already been addressed (for instance, the military mission against smugglers on the Libyan coast, as discussed here). Others will be addressed later: a broader reform of legal migration law and changes to the rules on asylum procedures and the ‘Dublin’ rules on responsibility...

Thứ Ba, 26 tháng 5, 2015

Open letter to UK MPs: Ensuring democratic scrutiny of UK surveillance law changes

Steve PeersDue to my concern about inadequate democratic scrutiny of changes to UK law (often linked to EU law) affecting privacy rights, I am one of the signatories to today's letter to MPs on this issue, published in the Guardian and elsewhere. Thanks to Andrew Murray and Paul Bernal for taking this initiative. An open letter to all members of the House of Commons,  Dear Parliamentarian, Ensuring the Rule of Law...

Thứ Hai, 25 tháng 5, 2015

The EU Referendum: Who should vote?

  Jo Shaw, University of EdinburghTwitter: @joshaw The question of who votes in what elections is usually thought to be a rather nerdy and obscure question, and it doesn’t often capture the public imagination. So it was quite something to see an announcement from Number 10 in advance of the publication of the EU Referendum Bill telling us what the franchise is going to be in the referendum trending as ‘most popular’ and as a ‘top story’...