Legal News

Coronavirus approach 'creates risks for the rule of law'
Wales 'more conscious' of devolution due to Covid-19 laws
The government’s approach to the coronavirus is creating risks for the rule of law, politicians have warned in a report looking at the human rights implications of Covid-19.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights, chaired by solicitor-MP Harriet Harman, said the amount of legislation coming into force before it has been laid in parliament is now high in volume and becoming routine.
Today’s report outlines that the government has written to the Commons speaker at least 25 times since March to explain why legislation has come into force before it has been laid in parliament. ‘The increased use of such an approach creates risks for the rule of law and the separation of powers,’ the committee said.
A parliamentary debate on the Coronavirus Act must take place before 3 October. Highlighting a worrying lack of parliamentary scrutiny so far, today’s report says 97 of the 130 coronavirus-related statutory instruments laid before parliament breached a 21-day convention designed to enable proper scrutiny.
The report says emergency procedures for passing laws should be exceptional and should require explicit justification, especially when human rights are at stake.
Harman said: ‘Parliament and the public must be kept appropriately and promptly informed about changes in policy, especially when the human rights of so many are affected in such a wide variety of ways. This is an unprecedented and uncertain time for everyone, and the government must act in a justifiable, fair and proportionate way.’
Over the weekend the government announced that, from next week, people will be required by law to self-isolate or face fines starting at £1,000, increasing to £10,000.
The government’s chief medical and scientific advisers today warned that there could be 49,000 new coronavirus cases by mid-October unless further action is taken. The government is expected to make a statement to the Commons tomorrow after the prime minister chairs an emergency COBRA meeting in the morning.
Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, lord chief justice, at launch of business and property courts also noted this issue. He made some remarks at the end of a seminar on the impact of Covid-19 on the justice system in Wales yesterday.
The former lord chief justice praised the way the Welsh Government had provided Covid-19 legislation with notice and made it available in a format where people could see the changes.
The commission, set up by the Welsh Government, recommended that Cardiff wrest full control of policy and funding from Westminster in its 556-page blueprint.
Carwyn Jones, former First Minister of Wales, told the seminar it was ‘plainly daft’ that Wales could create offences but lacked a justice system that could enforce them.
He said: ‘It will be possible to arrest someone who is in England for something that is an offence in Wales but not in England. It will also be possible for someone to serve a sentence in an English prison for an offence that’s not an offence in England but an offence in Wales. How can we have a situation where you are potentially at risk of being incarcerated for something in prison where the offence does not exist in that country?
‘There is a much better understanding of devolution, the way the law works in Wales – amongst the public as well as practitioners. But [there are] challenges where you try to draft law in such abnormal circumstances such as the one we have at the moment in a shared jurisdiction.’
Legal/economic terms

Rule of law is the authority and influence of law in society, especially when viewed as a constraint on individual and institutional behavior; (hence) the principle whereby all members of a society (including those in government) are considered equally subject to publicly disclosed legal codes and processes.
Politician 1) is a member of a government or law-making organization; 2) is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking office in government.
Human rights 1) are moral principles or norms that describe certain standards of human behaviour and are regularly protected in municipal and international law; 2) are norms that aspire to protect all people everywhere from severe political, legal, and social abuses.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights is a select committee of both the House of Commons and House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to consider human rights issues in the United Kingdom.
Legislation is a law or set of laws suggested by a government and made official by a parliament.
Parliament 1) is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries; 2) in some countries, the group of (usually) elected politicians or other people who make the laws for their country.
Government 1) the group of people who officially control a country; 2) is the system or group of people governing an organized community, often a state, but also other entities, for example, a company; 3) is a group of people that have the power to rule in a territory, according to the administrative law.
Separation of powers is a representation for the governance of a state. Under this model, a state's government is divided into branches, each with separate, independent powers and responsibilities so that powers of one branch are not in conflict with those of the other branches. The typical division is into three branches: a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary, which is the trias politica model.
Justification 1) is the declaring of a person to be just or righteous. It is a legal term signifying acquittal, a fact that makes it unpalatable to many in our day; 2) is defence in a prosecution for a criminal offense.
Law is a system of rules created and enforced through social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate.
Prime minister is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system.
Lord chief justice of England and Wales is the Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales and the President of the Courts of England and Wales.
Justice system is a term that describes the courts and other bureaucracies that handle American s criminal legal business, including offices of various state and federal prosecutors, public defenders, and probation offices.
Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization.
Jurisdiction is the authority granted by law to the courts to rule on legal matters and render judgments, according to the subject matter of the case, and the geographical region in which the issue took place.