War On Terror: loss of civil liberties only hands victory to extremists, say UK law leaders

The two leaders of the legal profession in England and Wales have strongly condemned Draconian US anti-terror legislation, warning delegates at the ABA conference that sacrificing civil liberties only handed victory to the extremists.


Law Society President Kevin Martin and Guy Mansfield QC, the Bar Council chairman, both lashed out at measures adopted by the Bush administration following the 11 September 2001 terror attacks in the US.


Speaking at a joint presentation by the two branches of the English profession, Mr Martin said that even against the backdrop of the recent bombings in London, 'we, as lawyers, and as representatives of bar associations and law societies, need to be the still small voice of calm when terrorist atrocities occur'.


He continued: 'We need to defend civil liberties, due process and the right to a fair trial, no matter who is accused and no matter of what.'


Following the London attacks, he said, 'we have seen our government willing to compromise civil liberties on an unprecedented scale in order to promote the fight against terrorism. It would be a foolhardy person who claimed that no governmental action was needed following such attacks, but it is not a panacea.'


At a separate conference session, Mr Mansfield took a more conciliatory approach to the measures adopted in the UK. He described the response of the British government and Parliament to the events of last month as 'gratifyingly measured'.


However, he said that more broadly, lessons from the past had not been learnt in relation to dealing with terrorism. 'Detention without trial in Northern Ireland was counterproductive,' said Mr Mansfield. 'People who might have naturally been against supporting the terrorists there may have ultimately turned a blind eye towards terrorist activity.'


He said the current situation was not a war, but 'a struggle for our beliefs. And if we give up our beliefs, then we begin to lose that struggle'.


Also speaking at the conference was Mary Robinson, formerly the president of the Republic of Ireland and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She said she had been 'depressed by the lack of and the level of debate about these issues in the US'.


She encouraged the US to adopt the criminal law route to defeating the terrorist threat as opposed to watering down the rule of law and the US constitution.


Harold Koh, the dean of the Yale Law School, said: 'The benefits of the so-called war on terror do not outweigh the costs to the rule of law.' He maintained that many senior US government and military lawyers object to the detention of 'enemy combatants' at overseas American military bases, and to many provisions of the Patriot Act.