Fourteenth Report Of Session 2009 10

Fourteenth report of Session 2009-10 : Documents considered by the Committee on 10 March 2010, report, together with formal Minutes

On cover and title page: House, committees of the whole House, general committees and select committees

Fourteenth report of Session 2010-11 : Documents considered by the Committee on 19 January 2011, including the following recommendations for debate, EU Citizenship; financial management, report, together with formal Minutes

Fourteenth report of Session 2005-06 : Documents considered by the Committee on 11 January 2006, including, Exchange of information between law enforcement authorities, report, together with formal Minutes

A report that provides an overview of the Committee's work during the 2008-09 parliamentary session and draws attention to improvements to the human rights landscape in the UK which it has commended in reports during the year. It also mentions a number of continuing areas for concern.

Legislative Scrutiny : Equality Bill (second report); Digital Economy Bill, fourteenth report of session 2009-10, report, together with formal minutes and written Evidence

Although there has been a lot written about how counter-terrorism laws impact on human rights and civil liberties, most of this work has focussed on the most obvious or egregious kinds of human rights abrogation, such as extended detention, torture, and extraordinary rendition. Far less has been written about the complex ways in which Western governments have placed new and far-reaching limitations on freedom of speech in this context since 9/11. This book compares three liberal democracies - the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, in particular showing the commonalities and similarities in what has occurred in each country, and the changes in the appropriate parameters of freedom of speech in the counter-terrorism context since 9/11, achieved both in policy change and the justification for that change. In all three countries much speech has been criminalized in ways that were considered anachronistic, or inappropriate, in comparable policy areas prior to 9/11. This is particularly interesting because other works have suggested that the United States' unique protection of freedom of speech in the First Amendment has prevented speech being limited in that country in ways that have been pursued in others. This book shows that this kind of argument misses the detail of the policy change that has occurred, and privileges a textual reading over a more comprehensive policy-based understanding of the changes that have occurred. The author argues that we are now living a new-normal for freedom of speech, within which restrictions on speech that once would have been considered aberrant, overreaching, and impermissible are now considered ordinary, necessary, and justified as long as they occur in the counter-terrorism context. This change is persistent, and it has far reaching implications for the future of this foundational freedom.