An investigation of the struggle against terrorism in the post HRA 1998 era, the basis of concerns, and legal remedies (PDF)

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2015 in the subject Law - Public Law / Constitutional Law / Basic Rights, University of London, course: LLB (Hons), language: English, abstract: The fundamental purpose of this study is to investigate whether foreign terrorists are taking advantage of HRA to obtain and retain their shelters in the UK; moreover, this paper will also scrutinise whether the legal remedies, that is, the grounds for derogation under the Act are sufficient to provide a viable way out to this perceived crisis or not.

The findings of this paper reveal that a considerable number of terrorists have used the law to obtain and retain their shelters; in addition, the clauses of derogation were not sufficient to allow the state to solve the problem in order to conserve public security. In fact, the courts delivered some very authoritative judgements, firmly establishing the concept that deportations are not possible in defiance of the Articles of the Convention, and this in turn has encouraged more foreign offenders to seek asylum in the UK. The rising number of terrorists may cause a long-term impact on the society, and there are apprehensions that preserving the rights of the foreign terrorists would jeopardize the rights of innocent citizens.

Since the September 11 attacks, the UK governments always prioritised the struggle to push back terrorism by every possible manoeuvre. One foremost step to restrict terrorist activities was to ensure the outflow of terrorists living in the UK, and to resist the terrorists seeking refuge in the UK from obtaining shelter. Conversely, HRA 1998 incorporated the ECHR with the key aspiration of safeguarding the rights of every single human being within the UK's territory; however, in the subsequent period, the Home Secretary remained persistent in alleging that significant numbers of terrorists are circumventing deportations on human rights grounds, making the struggle against terrorism more difficult in post HRA platform.