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Socialist Lawyer issue 55

Lift the siege

The murder and kidnapping of activists from the Free Gaza Movement by the Israeli government shocked the world. The Haldane Society was proud to take its banner on London demonstrations calling for an end to the siege of Gaza and for freedom for Palestine. We have a long tradition of working with lawyers, NGOs and other human rights activists for justice for the Palestinian people and for Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders. Immediately, we call for the siege of Gaza to be lifted and for Israel to negotiate with Hamas, legitimately elected by the people of Gaza. Several of us have friends and comrades who were aboard the Free Gaza flotilla.

Our President, Mike Mansfield QC, describes the proceedings of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. A key part of the Tribunal’s findings is that universal jurisdiction should be as effective as possible and that European Union governments should not interfere with attempts to hold members of the Israeli government criminally liable under international law. The British government’s response to the arrest warrant issued against Tzipi Livni for her role as a member of the Israeli War Cabinet during the invasion of Gaza in January 2009 shows that politicians are happy to undermine international law in order to maintain support for Israel. Universal jurisdiction – the right to prosecute certain crimes regardless of where the crime took place or the nationality of those involved – is all the more necessary when Israel itself shows contempt for international law, and for any basic morality. It’s not moral to assassinate or kidnap anyone carrying humanitarian aid to a desperate people.

Workers have been getting a rough time in the Courts and no doubt litigious employers are heartened by the election of a Tory government, even one in coalition. Both Network Rail and (at firstinstance) British Airways were able to obtain injunctions halting planned strikes, which had been properly balloted for and overwhelmingly supported by the members. Fortunately two of the three Court of Appeal judges saw the absurdity of preventing a strike because of a failure to include 11 spoilt ballots in the initial notification to BA cabin crew, even though the cabin crew had voted overwhelmingly for strike action.

Perhaps the European Court of Human Rights will have more common sense. Our Vice-President, John Hendy QC, represents the RMT in its application to the ECHR against the anti-trade union laws on the grounds that they restrict freedom of association. John Hendy is also President of the Institute for Employment Rights and we’ve been very pleased to work with the Institute recently in hosting a conversation between Lord Wedderburn QC and Jim Mortimer. Our interview with John – marking his election as a new Vice-President – couldn’t have come at a better time for us, even though it was at an extraordinarily busy time for him.

The Haldane Society is in no doubt that the new Tory-Lib Coalition will attack the living standards of workers, and those who cannot work. Any wishful thinking that the Liberal Democrats might be a restraining influence was shattered when they discarded the few progressive policies that they had on civil liberties. ‘Abolition of control orders’ has become a ‘review’ of control orders. They are silent about 28 day detention and agreed to ‘review’ the Human Rights Act. We expect nothing better from this government than from the previous New Labour government, and potentially a great deal worse.

One of the targets of the £6 billion public spending cuts is likely to be legal aid (public funding). We’ve seen the various re-organisations by the Legal Services Commission turn the legal aid scheme into a poor shadow of what it should be: a nationwide network of publicly funded lawyers whose services are available to all except the richest (who can afford their own lawyers). The Attorney General was at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards in May (when our President Mike Mansfield QC and our Vice-Chair Kat Craig were each honoured). The work of each shortlisted candidate was truly extraordinary and a better case could not have been made for the necessity of legal aid. Despite all he heard, Dominic Grieve insisted that there will be cuts.

The Haldane Society is working with Young Legal Aid Lawyers and the Save Legal Aid Campaign to make the case for publicly funding legal services. The government will only listen if this is a broad-based campaign, reaching out beyond the legal profession to the vast majority of people who cannot afford to pay for legal representation. Far too many people are either not eligible to receive legal aid at all, or find themselves in ‘advice deserts’ where no legal aid lawyers can be found. We aim to work with trade unions, and other campaigns, so that ‘save legal aid’ is an integral part of all the campaigns to save the welfare state which was hard fought for and which will be vigorously defended.

Liz Davies, chair, HaldaneSociety lizdavies@riseup.net