Just Law

By Helena Kennedy

Chatto & Windus, 20

Richard Stein

Helena Kennedy, a Labour peer, has produced a devastating critique of the authoritarian march of New Labour in her latest book.

As a criminal QC with direct experience of many miscarriages of justice, she passionately sets out the pitfalls inherent in the opportunist approach taken by a Labour government that ought to know better.

Using an easy discursive style, Baroness Kennedy surveys a wide range of civil rights issues of public importance today.

She criticises the draconian post-11 September 2001 anti-terrorist legislation as being the thin end of the wedge.

The erosion of civil liberties in these areas sets up 'a contagion which seeps into the bloodstream of the legal and political system'.

The government's 'war on crime', playing to the lowest common denominator, also comes in for criticism.

Rather than promoting an endless stream of new initiatives, she would favour adequate resourcing and appropriate implementation of the existing provisions.

New Labour's relentless attempts to erode jury trials are seen as extraordinary - coming from a populist government so wedded to policy making by focus group.

She also reminds us of the numerous occasions on which David Blunkett has railed against judges who have concluded that the home secretary has breached human rights, and struck down his policies.

As he said to the Daily Telegraph: 'If public policy can be overridden by individual challenge through the courts, then democracy itself is under threat.' Baroness Kennedy suggests that it is the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law that is really under threat.

In a critique of the Public Defender Service, she points out 'that while every other aspect of our lives is being privatised, the one area where nationalisation is taking place is in the legal service for people accused of crime'.

Perhaps it is destined to become just a safety net for the poor?

She also takes up the cudgels for legal aid lawyers generally, pointing out that much of the attack on them has come from New Labour lawyer politicians such as Lords Falconer, Goldsmith and Irvine, who were all million pounds-a-year commercial lawyers before they moved into government.

The book depressingly concludes by reminding us of the disappointment felt by supporters when they speak of Labour in government.

It is a wake-up call to all of us to refuse to allow any further serious erosion of our liberties.

Richard Stein is a partner with London-based human rights specialist law firm Leigh Day & Co