LONDON -- At the recent Labour Party Conference, Prime Minister Tony Blair criticized the British criminal justice system. He said it needed toughening and called for "a radical extension of summary powers to police and local authorities" to deal with antisocial behavior and prevent terrorism.
Under measures to prevent terrorism, the government has already diluted the provisions of habeas corpus, the fundamental element of British Common Law that says no one shall be detained for more than 24 hours without the approval of a magistrate or a judge. The government now wants police to have the power to detain terrorist suspects without trial for up to three months.
Blair has attacked British judges for being too keen to enforce the European convention on human rights (which his government persuaded Parliament to adopt into English law), although he denies seeking to "abandon human rights."