Legal News

Labour has said it would support the prime minister’s position on voting rights to the prison inmates. David Cameron had said the ban on voting from jail was a matter for the Parliament and not a foreign court to decide.
But Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Williams said prisoners who were serving short sentences should be allowed to vote as part of their rehabilitation.
The ECHR had earlier this week given the UK six months to come out with its proposed change in the law on prisoners votes.
To a query by DUP leader Nigel Dodds who sought assurances from the Prime Minister not to succumb to the diktat from the European Court of Human Rights, Mr Cameron had said that he would not.
The Strasbourg court has ruled that it was up to the national authorities to decide which prisoners should be denied the right to vote from jail but said that a blanket ban was illegal.
Labour shadow minister Andy Burnham told the BBC's Daily Politics his party would back the government if it were to challenge the ECHR's decision.
He told the programme the court had crossed a line with this one and there was a need to take a genuine stand on an unacceptable intrusion into domestic policy he said.
He said that he thought it was an important issue of principle and a clear message was needed to be sent to Strasbourg.
Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Cameron said he had always believed that those who were sent to prison "should lose certain rights", including the right to vote, adding he said Parliament had made its decision and he completely agreed with it.
But while backbench Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams, a member of the constitutional reform select committee, said the issue wasn't a "coalition breaker" he said the British government should respect the European court's decision.
He said that it should be a part of prisoner rehabilitation to maintain links with the society but added anyone serving a long sentence for "rape, murder or terrorism" should be barred from taking part in elections.
Mr Williams warned that prisoners could take out compensation claims against the UK if the government sticks with the ban.
At present, the only prisoners allowed to vote in Britain were those on remand.
In 2005, the ECHR ruled the ban unlawful, and in 2010, the Council of Europe, which enforces the court's decrees, urged the coalition government to rectify the situation.